A CHILD’S DREAM
This’slenderIt’s another Bentley, however, that first sparked his passion for automobiles.
He remembers the exact moment when, at the age of 12, he was browsing car magazines in a bookstore in the Bras Basah complex and the Bentley R-Type Continental caught his eye and captured his imagination for decades to come.
“It was 1953 and the writer had written in the magazine, ‘Sitting in a Bentley R-Type is like riding on a modern treadmill. Changing gears is like a hot knife cutting through butter. And I was like, ‘One day, I hope I can own this. he remembers.
Decades passed and Lim dabbled in motorsport racing in the 1970s and 1980s, autocross racing and parking lot rallies in Singapore while working in the automotive industry during that time.
In 1984 he left the country to start a supermarket business in Papua New Guinea, which grew into a successful wholesale business and his empire grew to include a travel agency and a hotel. later expanding into Australia with a hospitality business including hotels and motels.
He was also appointed Singapore’s Honorary Consul General for Papua New Guinea from 1994 to 2002.
It was during this time that Lim would put his childhood dream into motion.
“I started looking for people who owned the Bentley R-Type Continental and found a handful of owners all over mainland Australia and called them one by one,” he said.
“The first and second said ‘no’ to the sale, but the third said ‘yes’ because he had just had surgery on his leg and was considering selling it.”
From Sydney, Lim flew to Melbourne to meet the other car collector and picked up his dream car in 2001. Only 208 units of the model had been produced and only 70% of them are believed to still exist. today.
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