Hubert de Pelet

Front side of Hubert de Pelet's Bentley Arnage T, driving across sand.

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Family adventures

Memories

Rewind

The practical choice

Scrolling through his phone’s camera roll, Hubert de Pelet selects an album: Arnage adventures. But despite the promising title, and Hubert’s exotic-sounding name, these aren’t Insta-perfect pictures of Alpine roads or lavish trips to the French Riviera. These are much more interesting.

“This one is Scarlett and her hamster,” he says, showing us a photo of a proud-looking three-year-old in a big Bentley, holding a cage containing her new pet rodent. “That was easy compared to transporting her goldfish.”

In other pictures, holiday luggage is piled around a Labrador. Weekly food shops fill the boot. Little faces peek through the foliage of plants from the garden centre.

“This car has survived several animals, countless takeaways, muddy camping trips and one unfortunate nail-polish spill,” says Hubert.

Let’s rewind for a moment. It’s the late 2000s, and with a calendar full of school runs, supermarket sweeps and half-term holidays, Hubert – along with wife Faye and daughters Scarlett and Hayley – needed some new family wheels. Something wipe-clean, practical and up to the job of daily chores. He settled on a lightly used Bentley Arnage.

“It was four years old when I bought it,” he says. “And had about 15,000 miles on the clock – so barely run in!”

Nearly two decades later, Hubert’s Arnage has covered 165,000 miles. In that time it’s watched toddlers become teenagers, carried the family on camping holidays and road trips, and quietly taken on the everyday duties that keep life ticking.

Who needs an MPV when you have a four-door Bentley with a huge boot and suspension so smooth it sends the kids to sleep?

Hubert was already a Bentley fan, having owned a Turbo R, the Arnage’s predecessor. “I thought about buying a Mulsanne, but actually I felt the Arnage was a better family car. I love the two-door Brooklands version too, it’s very special… but not quite as practical.”

He settled on this Arnage T, the final and most powerful Arnage, with a 6.75-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 making 500bhp and 738 lb-ft. All of which ensured prompt arrival at campsites and kids’ clubs for the de Pelets.

An appreciation of Bentley clearly runs in the family: wife Faye has a Continental GTC, while Hubert’s father, a true-blue Frenchman, owns a Mulsanne. Maybe their cars’ Le Mans-inspired names have a subconscious appeal?

Center console of Hubert de Pelet's Bentley Arnage T.

Hubert de Pelet holding fish and chips next to his Bentley Arnage T.

Irreplaceable

Tactile pleasures

Designed to be used

“It’s lived a life, but it’s ageing gracefully, don’t you think?” Hubert asks. “The wood and metals look as if they were made yesterday. And there are no annoying beeps or synthetic sounds – the indicators sound like a grandfather clock.” He flicks one of the air vents, which rings out with a crystal-clear ping, like a glass tapped with a knife. “Solid, see?”

“I like traditional design in cars. Real instruments and dials – and these are some of the best I’ve seen in a car. The organ-stop air vent controls are perfectly weighted.”

As Hubert drives, his sleeve rides up his arm, revealing a Breitling Bentley watch. “A 50th birthday present from Faye,” he says. “She understands.”

Later, we eat fish and chips on the beach at Weston-super-Mare, a scene that could have come straight from one of Hubert’s family trips years ago. Bella, his fox-red Labrador Retriever, sits patiently in the passenger footwell, doting eyes fixed on Hubert and his lunch.

“This car’s irreplaceable,” Hubert says. “But I’m not precious about it. Cars are meant to be used. I park this outside, on the streets, even in the less glamorous parts of London.” And there comes a point, he says, where value isn’t measured in money.

“You open the rear doors and you remember the girls sitting back there, the dogs, the hamsters…” he says. “All those little moments.”

Flying B of Hubert de Pelet's Bentley Arnage T in front of a pier.

Mud splattered front side of Hubert de Pelet's Bentley Arnage T.

Hubert de Pelet and his dog seen through the front window of his Bentley Arnage T.

A driver's car

Effortless power

Built to last

Endurance

After nearly 16 years of familiarity, Hubert threads the five-metre-long Arnage effortlessly through tight gaps, the Flying B confidently leading the way like a ship’s figurehead.

“There’s something about a Bentley,” says Hubert. “It puts me in a good mood, and I do drive it quite hard when I’m on my own.” Sometimes that means late-night drives home from London on empty roads, when there’s a chance to use that power without making kids car-sick.

“It’s comfortable, but not soft,” he says. “You can really feel what it’s doing. Someone said the engine sounds like distant thunder… and I can’t think of a more apt description.”

So after driving the equivalent of seven times around the world, how is the Arnage bearing up? “The engine and gearbox are very strong,” Hubert says. “Everything is original, it’s just had maintenance. And no breakdowns. I trust it, so I’ll keep putting the miles on it…”

That philosophy mirrors his working life. Hubert runs a property business, sympathetically restoring period homes while keeping their character intact. “There’s a beauty in things that last,” he says. “Think about churches built a thousand years ago. Across the landscape they leave this permanent footprint, built for generations to come.”

“If I buy a car, I want it to last a lifetime,” he says. “There are still 100-year-old Bentleys on the road today. And I think that mindset is becoming part of our culture again. When you buy an everyday hatchback, you never think ‘one day this will be 100 years old’. But with the Arnage… maybe it will.”

I bought it when it was a modern saloon. Now it’s a modern classic. It’s here, it’s already been built – for me, keeping it going is the sustainable thing to do. I hope it’s still going this strong after 200,000 miles.”

Could he ever imagine parting with it? “When the time comes… I wouldn’t mind being buried in it,” he says. “It’s built as solidly as a tomb, so why not?”