Buying Giorgio Armani's Bentley Is The Most Stylish Way To Spend A Hundred Grand

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When he wasn't jetting around the world opening new boutiques or brokering mergers and takeovers, recently deceased Italian fashion magnate Giorgio Armani once daily-drove this gorgeous blue Bentley. In a high-stress position, at arguably the height of his power and notoriety, Mr. Armani had reason to want a comfortable and relaxing daily driver. There wasn't much from the Italian automakers at the time that would hold a candle to the Brits, and at the time, the Brooklands was Bentley's biggest and best offering. Thirty years later, you can have this incredible example of stately elegance for yourself, as it's coming up for auction at RM Sotheby's Monaco sale in April.

I imagine if one were to purchase a hand-assembled 1990s-era Bentley, they would certainly need to be quite stylish in order to pull it off. In 1996, Giorgio Armani, by most accounts a very stylish man, ordered this Bentley Brooklands new. One of just 153 left-hand-drive Brooklands built for 1996, Mr. Armani chose a beautiful Deep Royal Blue paint, accented by a Parchment-colored coachline. Inside, where he spent much of his time, the car is trimmed in matching Parchment leather with Portland Stone-colored carpeting and Burr Walnut trim. It's really quite fetching to look at. If it were mine, I'd have to commission a custom suit jacket in a matching Deep Royal Blue with Parchment lining.

According to the auction house, Mr. Armani took delivery of this car in March of 1996 and used the car regularly through September, when he sold it back to his Bentley dealer in Rome. The car was registered new to Mr. Armani, featuring his initials on the license plate: AG138SE. That same set of letters and numbers remains with the car today. The car has always lived in Italy, with the second owner also living on the outskirts of the Italian capitol.

In 2026, a man of Mr. Armani's station would probably be chauffeured around in something boring like a Mercedes Sprinter with custom armchairs built into the back with a work station for a laptop. But back in 1996, even a high-powered CEO could be off the grid for twenty minutes at a time between meetings while they drove somewhere, unfathomable as it may seem today. No need for the Sprinter with WiFi and the laptop. This Bentley doesn't seem to have anything quite so crass as a car phone, either. I appreciate it. As the Italians like to say, "piano piano." 

This Bentley Brooklands presents both sides of the luxury coin. It is comfortable and quiet enough to keep you relaxed as you waft along in reserved contemplation. At the same time, the new-for-'96 engine added turbochargers to the old-school Bentley 6.75-liter V8 for an impressive-for-the-time 300 horsepower. That meant the big stately machine had a bit more oomph to get you there on time. Time is money, after all. It's difficult to call a nearly-three-ton British luxo-barge fast, but the Brooklands could get after it. It would do 0-60 in about 8 seconds, and run up to a top speed of 130 miles per hour. 

Do I think this car should auction for a premium because Giorgio Armani drove it for seven months? Absolutely not, but it's probably going to. I could see paying a premium for a uniquely optioned car in a striking colorway, but not a unique owner. RM Sotheby's says the pre-auction estimate for Armani's Bentley is between 45,000 and 90,000 Euros (about $52,000 to $104,000). According to Classic.com, the average sale price of a 1990s Brooklands is about $16,000, so unless you really love this color, or you really love Giorgio Armani, you're probably better off finding a nice example elsewhere for a lot less. There's a nice green non-turbo example on eBay right now for $21,000, just in case you're looking. 

In case you were unaware, Bentley named its 1992 Brooklands model after the famed high-banked course near Surrey in England. The course opened in 1907 and was claimed to be the world's first purpose-built banked motor racing circuit. The 2.75-mile rhomboid circuit is absolutely massive, a full quarter mile longer than even the behemoth old-school tracks here in America: Daytona International Speedway and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's hard to really get across just how big this place was in writing, but imagine a really big thing, and it's probably bigger than that. 

A local newspaper offered a prize for the driver who broke the closed course speed record at the circuit, and in 1932, a Blower Bentley driver, Henry Birkin, took the prize with a speed of 137.96 miles per hour. That record would stand for two full seasons. Brooklands is a fitting name, then, for Bentley's luxury powerhouse. By 1996 the track was little more than history to most Brits, and practically nothing to Italians or Americans, with the eponymous car taking the mantle forevermore. 

While the track has lain dormant since 1939, it was a breeding ground of speed and innovation in its time. Bentley certainly owed a lot of its international success to the high-speed track. I reckon it probably wouldn't have been able to win at Le Mans without hundreds of miles spent at the massive Brooklands course. More than any other modern automaker, Bentley owes a lot of its history to Brooklands. If you want to own a piece of that history, this car certainly looks like it's among the best examples available for sale.