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Flying Spares has finished what the company describes as its ‘toughest ever’ engine rebuild.

The work was undertaken on an RS60 V8 motor for a Bentley Brooklands Coupe that was originally owned by a member of the Bahrain royal family.

Flying Spares’ Technical Services Division manager Andy Thwaites explained: ‘We like a challenge, so we said we’d take a look. Some weeks later a stack of boxes arrived at our workshop. They contained not only the engine but the gearbox, turbos, wiring loom and all kinds of ancillaries. It was a high tech jigsaw puzzle, but we soon pieced it together and identified the fault. The camshaft follower (a hydraulic tappet) was shattered, so it had rotated around the cam causing extensive damage. The whole engine had to be stripped down.

‘We bolted on the necessary components and to our great relief it worked perfectly, with good oil pressure and compressions. The next question was how best to transport it. In the end, we constructed a wooden crate specifically for the engine to protect it on its 3000 mile journey back to Bahrain. There, a Bentley-trained technician reunited the car with its engine. It was only then he told us the owner was a senior royal. It was an incredibly intricate build, certainly the toughest project I’ve ever worked on.’