The British are famous for many things. Queuing, tea, and warm beer are the among the most common, but in the automotive sphere, they have perfected the art of badge engineering like no other vehicle-producing nation. One only needs to look to the sheer brilliance of the Austin Vanden Plan Princess to see what we mean: ‘Just change the grille and badges, they’ll never know!’ was surely the motto of the 70s.

Badge engineering wasn’t just relegated to the faux-lux regality of the Princess, rather it stretched the whole breadth of the market. The car you see in these pictures is not a Rolls-Royce Corniche, no, they are far too common. This is a Bentley Corniche, and is one of just 63 built.

Bentley was traditionally the more sporting of the two sister companies, and on their version of the Corniche this is reflected in a different grille, bespoke winged badging, different hubcaps and…. actually, that’s just about it. You could be forgiven for mistaking this elegant coupe for a Rolls-Royce Corniche, of which over a thousand were built. But anyone who really knows their Bentleys will take great delight, and likely pleasure, in setting you straight.

Here’s the interesting thing about the classic car market – despite being essentially the same thing, the Bentley Corniche is eminently more collectable. As cars to buy and enjoy, there’s no real difference between the two. But from the perspective of a true enthusiast, the Bentley Corniche is somewhat of an oddity, an interesting, if often overlooked, footnote in the history of British car manufacturing. In a world where certain colour and trim combinations can sometimes double the value of a car, it makes perfect sense that Bentley Corniche would be worth more than its Rolls-Royce sibling. It probably seems quite bizarre to outsiders, but it seems second nature to those of us imbedded in the hobby.

The question on everyone’s lips is how much extra is the Bentley Corniche worth? This is a tricky one because there were so few built, and as the vendor of this example rightly points out, many change hands between marque enthusiasts without ever being advertised. There’s probably an element of the condition, too. A shabby Bentley Corniche with no history might not be worth as much as a concours standard, one-owner Rolls-Royce Corniche, but two equal-condition cars? We doubt that they’ve ever come onto the market at the same time.

The 1971 example in our photos, currently for sale via online auction with specialists The Market, presents an exciting opportunity. It is one of just three right-hand drive examples built that year, making it unquestionably more collectable than a similar condition Rolls-Royce Corniche, and every bit as enjoyable.

Have a look at our data of past Rolls-Royce Corniche auction results, and you can see that its £38-45,000 guide price puts it £10-15,000 above its Rolls-Royce equivalent. Looking to other models, ranging from the aforementioned Vanden Plas Princess to the various special edition Mazda MX-5s available, and we can see that the market clearly values the additional collectability of these rarer models.

In a world (relatively) awash with 70s Rolls, the Bentley Corniche is an inspired and unique way to safeguard your investment. It’s certainly a marmite type car – you either get the Bentley point of difference and really embrace it, or you don’t. And if you do, we can barely imagine a better conversation starter for car shows.