A Bentley With a Caravan?

Well, that had to change and the car to change it is of course the Bentayga. What would an SUV be after all if you couldn’t hitch up the caravan to it?

The latest “lifestyle option” for the £160,000 Bentayga is being demonstrated this weekend at Laguna Seca as part of Bentley’s display at Monterey Auto Week: the Bentayga is getting hitched to a Bowlus Road Chief caravan, itself a very special thing.

Starting from US$137,000 apiece – and that’s before customising – the Road Chief is a rivetted aluminium monocoque done out in that luxury frontiersman style the Americans do so well.

The story of Bowlus is a good one. The Californian firm started making aircraft – one of its more famous models was Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis – before moving into caravans. You may be interested in a short promotional video all about the firm and its latest mode (though it is towed here by a Saab rather than a  Bentley!).

You can tow your own Road Chief – or maybe a Elddis Majestic in the UK – with the electrically retractable towbar now available to order for the Bentayga at £1140.

It might be the first official option but of course towbars on the back of Bentleys are nothing new. Lots of vintage Bentleys have towed trailers in their time, and a matching caravan for the 1950s Continental was a popular thing at the time. You may remember at Revival a dozen or so years ago the splendid result of one man’s personal mission to recreate that quirky '50s scenario by restoring a British Carlite caravan (the so-called “Rolls-Royce” of caravans) to perfectly match his own Continental, right down to same shade of green paint.

Rather like a Bentayga and Road Chief, the result was very very long!