Driving Force...
Former, detective turned entrepreneur, Nick Davies has a need for
speed that only a Bentley can satisfy.
Like most young boys, Nick Davies dreamed of owning an Aston Martin, a
Ferrari or a Bentley. “When you’re a lad those are the three cars that
are real icons,” says the former policeman, who now runs his own hugely
successful business.
We are sitting in the drawing room of his luxury home that has a
panoramic view over the Quantocks, near Bristol. Parked in the drive is
a new Bentley Continental GT and beyond that a custom-built stable
complex that looks like something straight out of the set of “Dallas.”
Back in the Eighties, Nick was a detective, working for Bristol CID,
when he had a clever idea. Like all clever ideas it was simple, but when
he approached his superior officer with his thoughts he was told the
concept was “out of the box.”
So, Nick left the police force and put his idea into practice. “You can
call it the business police,” he tells me. He elaborates, “We are the
BUPA equivalent of the police force to business. There was an
opportunity in the market to present a professional business crime
investigation service, and so I started my company.”
Within three years it was clear that Nick had tapped a lucrative hole in
the business market and within three years he was bought out. Next he
started in a similar line, but specialising in the consultancy sphere,
advising blue chip companies on security solutions, and building up his
own business empire in the meantime.
So, when the time came for him to fulfil his boyhood dream, he was
fortunate enough to own not just one of those luxury cars, but all
three. It was not until then, however, that he discovered that even
these ultimate marques of the motor world had what he calls “their
foibles.”
“They are all great cars,” explains Nick, “but the expectations came
sometimes exceed reality. The reason I slimmed down to just owning the
Bentley is because it’s so useable. I am probably one of the highest
mileage Bentley owners in Britain. I drove 17,000 miles in nine months
last year. In my new one, I’ve just done 3,000 miles in a month.”
Nick goes on, “It’s an every day car. It’s so driveable. It’s a great
office, too. You can talk on the mobile phone at 70mph and not be
bothered by wind noise. It does everything I want it to do. It’s just
the best car.” He has owned seven Bentleys since 1991 and he insists
that they are excellent value for money. “It can’t be beaten pound for
pound and it’s very acceptable to clients,” he says.
In fact, Nick is so enamoured of the Bentley marque that he ordered his
current GT Continental while it was still on the drawing board and five
years before it went into production. He has also just put down a £5,000
deposit on a drop-head convertible Arnage – a project that hasn’t even
been given the green light yet. “If they’re going to build one, they’re
not going to build a bad one,” he smiles.
As a policeman, Nick passed several driving examinations. “The good
thing about it was when I was in the force they taught us really good
safe driving. It’s a fabulous skill to have attained.” Yet while he
always obeys the speed limit in his Bentley, he feels very strongly that
speed cameras are being used merely as another form of taxation and that
if everyone drove at 70mph on our motorways, the whole road network
would grind to a halt.
So what, I ask, does a self-confessed speed addict do for kicks? It’s
then that Nick wheels out his Radical SR3. Made in Peterborough, it’s a
two-seater racing car that has been given rave reviews by Jeremy
Clarkson on “Top Gear.” So how does it compare with his Bentley? “The GT
is serene and lovely and smooth, but that,” he says pointing to the
bright red Radical, “is like sitting in a roller skate. Both have their
appeal, but whereas the Bentley is grandiose, the Radical is just raw
animal lust!”
The SR3 was bought mainly to entertain clients. Football and rugby, Nick
felt, no longer held an appeal for his clients who were after something
more. Before buying the Radical, Nick looked at the latest Ferrari but
with changing attitudes to speed on motorways, he felt it might be
considered rather anti-social. The Radical provided the solution.
“Driving it was one most frightening thing I’ve ever tried,” confesses
Nick, adding: “If you like speed and thrills, pound for pound there’s
nothing out there that can touch it”.
“We took it to Silverstone recently and it transformed average drivers
into superstars. It was so well balanced and it’s got manners to die
for. You can drive extremely fast, extremely safely, without being
dangerous to yourself and others,” he says. “It’s just totally good
fun.”
Nick’s 15 year-old daughter Emily has also inherited her father’s love
of speed. She is a champion rider and was a member of the Great Britain
team, which won a gold medal in last year’s European Pony Championship
in Poland. “It’s like the Olympics for the under 16s,” explains Nick.
Emily also came third in last year’s Horse of the Year Show held at the
NEC Birmingham. Broughton’s Bentley sponsored her for a season as she
took part in competitions throughout Europe, including France and
Germany. She hopes to be competing in the Royal Windsor Horse Show in
May, but her real, long-term ambition is to compete in the 2012 Olympic
team.
Nick is also a licensed helicopter pilot, but his current work projects
mean he doesn’t have time to indulge in his keen interest in flying. In
June he will be launching his latest project – a brilliant invention
that promises to dramatically cut retail crime not only in Britain, but
also around the world.
“It’s called Vendormark and it’s a global solution to the problem of
supply chain theft,” he explains. Amazingly the most stolen item in
Britain is the humble razor blade, followed by the battery. Nick’s
invention is a hologram, applied to the packaging of a product, which
will hopefully put paid to the lucrative black market trade in stolen
goods. A special theftline number on the goods encourages anyone who has
bought the goods other than from the intended source to report the
illegal supplier.
Trials with major retailers have seen a remarkable 80 per cent drop in
theft. The product is being officially launched at the Retail Solutions
Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, in June and promises to have a major
impact on an illicit trade that costs the EU market alone around 18
billion Euros a year.
So, if Vendormark lives up to its promise, will Nick be treating himself
to any more luxury cars? He shakes his head: “I’ve had access to them
all, but I wouldn’t swap my GT for anything – unless, of course, they
bring out the drop-head convertible!” |