The Bentley Continental R is a luxury coupé manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Bentley Motors from 1991 to 2003. It was the first Bentley to feature a body not shared with a Rolls-Royce model since the 1965 S3 Continental and was the first to use the GM 4L80-E transmission. The Continental R was the fastest, most expensive, and most powerful Bentley automobile of its day. It was also the most expensive production car in the world at its introduction. A convertible derivative, called the Bentley Azure, was launched in 1995. Origin and the Bentley revival As managing director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in the early 1980s under the Vickers ownership, David Plastow could see the potential in the Bentley brand. It had been neglected for the previous 15 years and made up only a very small percentage of the company's sales at that time, particularly outside the UK in important markets such as the USA. The first move in reshaping the brand was to introduce a turbocharged model of the standard Bentley 4-door saloon: as a result, the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo was launched in 1982. On the back of this, Peter Ward, marketing director of the company (and later, Managing Director), wanted to further enhance the distinctive sporting nature of the Bentley brand and move away from a Bentley that was merely a re-badged Rolls-Royce. They appointed designers John Heffernan and Ken Greenley to come up with ideas for a new, distinctive, Bentley coupé. A fibreglass mock up of the design was displayed at the 1985 Geneva Motor Show as Rolls-Royce's "Project 90" concept of a future Bentley coupé. The concept was met with an enthusiastic reception, but the Project 90 design was largely shelved as the company began to work towards a replacement for the Rolls-Royce Corniche. During this process, Graham Hull, chief designer in house at Rolls-Royce, suggested to the board of directors that the designs sketched for the Corniche would suit a Bentley coupé better. From this point it was decided the Corniche could continue as it was, and efforts would once again be channelled into a new Bentley coupé. In 1986 Graham Hull produced a design rendering of a new Bentley coupé which became the Continental R. Based on the Rolls-Royce SZ platform (which was an evolution of the SY platform), an aerodynamically shaped two-door coupé body had been styled. John Heffernan and Ken Greenley were