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Vintage Bentleys under the Hammer at Retromobile 2026
Four Bentleys from the Peter Godehart Collection find new homes at Retromobile. A busy start to the season with trade exhibitors also experiencing brisk trade
Welcome to the Vintagebentleyregister.com
Here's a quick update on why the site has been re-launched - why the address is different - why it looks quite similar - what our plans are for the future - how you an help this resource become more complete
Organisations with whom we are aligned and would like to support
In addition to all those who contributed to the first iteration of the site - we would like to acknowledge and support the following:
Benjafield’s Racing Club Yorkshire Rally
The Benjafield’s Racing Club gathered at club member Jonathan Turner’s home at Bowcliffe Hall on Saturday 15 October for the one-off Yorkshire Buccaneer event. Local enthusiasts and car owners enjoyed a day of Yorkshire-themed action at the unique MSA-approved rally, attended by a total of 41 historic cars.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Century of Supercars: what is the greatest of them all?
It is often said that the term “supercar” was coined to describe the Lamborghini Miura, which burst into the motoring world exactly 50 years ago, but that belief is as incorrect as it is commonly held. That is not to say that the Miura wasn’t a watershed, because it did set the template for every supercar since. It wasn’t the first rear-mid-engined sports car for the road – that honour goes to the Matra Djet – but the combination of that sonorous, transversely mounted 4.0-litre V12 and drop-dead gorgeous looks by Bertone seared the Miura into the public psyche. But the first supercar? Think again.
Categories: All models
We sample Bentley's first race-winning car, the 1921 EXP 2, alongside the company's 2003 Le Mans winner and the current Continental GT3 racer It is 95 years since a Bentley won its first motor race, and we were lucky to go for a spin in that very car at the site of its victory, the banked circuit at Brooklands. Frank Clement, WO Bentley’s development engineer and racing driver, won the Junior Sprint Handicap at Brooklands on May 16, 1921 in EXP 2 which was built in 1919 at the company’s original Cricklewood workshop. Joining in the celebrations were some more recent victorious Bentleys, the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Speed 8 and the latest Continental GT3, which takes to the track this weekend at Silverstone.
Categories: All models
A mechanic took customer service to a new level by going on a 15,000-mile round trip from London to Mongolia - so he could carry out a 10-minute repair job. Bentley specialist William Medcalf took two flights and then drove through the desert for more than seven hours to help customer Bill Cleyndert. Mr Cleyndert was taking part in the Peking to Paris motor rally when a wheel bearing failed on his 1924 Bentley Super Sports.
Categories: All models
Incredibly rare 1928 Bentley car re-discovered after over 50 years
This 4½ litre vintage Bentley (Reg UP 2100) was taken apart and kept in boxes for more than 50 years. It has been reassembled to its former state and could now be worth £800,000. The dismantled 1928 4.5-litre Drop Head registration UP 2100 was found at a three-storey house after its owner Stuart Wallace died last year aged 75.
Categories: 4½ Litre
The Syd Lawrence Special: Surprise chassis discovery?
For sixty-six years the chassis no. for Syd Lawrence's racing car VMF 944 has been known to be the odd-sounding '102/50 ML'. Now in 2016, it has had the W.O. Chassis no. 708 bestowed on it. Deal with it.
Categories: 3 litre
When is a Vintage Bentley a real Vintage Bentley?
Well known dealer and restorer Stanley Mann recently quoted auto historian Clare Hay's views on this subject. Read this piece and also the opinions of our readers.
Categories: General / Misc
The Life and Times of Chassis 348
When I was asked to write an article telling the story of our 3 litre Bentley, chassis 348, I answered “Ok, but once her 90th birthday present restoration is complete.” That has given me a 2-year reprieve, but now the time has come to put pen to paper, or should I say finger to keyboard? So, where to start? I have known the car since my father, Edgar Ridgen, called in to my boarding school in Timaru when first taking her home to Greendale, after purchasing her in 1976. But of course 348’s story starts a bit earlier than that; shall we say October 1923, her delivery date...
Categories: 3 litre
British Speed in Italy: Bentley marks anniversary with Mille Miglia Run
In 1930, ‘Bentley Boy’ Tim Birkin claimed his aborted attempt on the Mille Miglia in his legendary Blower was due to a lack of “due preparation”. 85 years on, Bentley has ensured all plans are in place for a successful Blower run in the 2015 event. ‘Bentley Boys’ the Hon. Sir Henry (Tim) Birkin and Bentley Chairman Woolf Barnato were to be the first British drivers to attempt the thousand-mile Italian test of endurance, in a supercharged ‘Bentley Blower’ known as the No. 2 ‘Birkin Blower’.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Classic Bentleys ready for action-packed summer season
Legendary cars from Bentley’s past are embarking on a tour of the world’s premier heritage and historical automotive events this summer. The ‘Blue Train’ car that famously raced the Calais-Mediterranée Express and the Team Blower that entered Le Mans in 1930 – the race ultimately won by Bentley Boys Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston in Speed 6 'Old No 1' – are among the highlights of Bentley’s curated or treasured collection.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley Car Club tours Midcoast, Owls Head Transportation Museum, Firefly Restorations
The North American Vintage Bentley Meet kicked off on May 18, 2014 at the Owls Head Transportation Museum. Around 30 vintage Bentley cars, ranging from 1921 to a more modern 2014 model, adorned the tarmac at the museum while club members toured the museum and eventually took turns in a driving skills test. This was the starting point for the club’s North American Tour...
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Can't we just get rid of ethanol?
Jay Leno went through the 70s, the 80s and most of the 90s without ever having read much about car fires. Now suddenly, they are happening all over the place. Here’s one reason: The ethanol in modern gasoline — about 10 percent in many states — is so corrosive, it eats through either the fuel-pump diaphragm, old rubber fuel lines or a pot metal part, then leaks out on a hot engine...
Categories: General / Misc
All I want is to be able to choose when to use ethanol-laced gasoline
No other column written by Jay Leno generated as much controversy as the one with the "Can’t We Just Get Rid of Ethanol?" piece. He has an ethanol-fuel vehicle — the E85 Corvette — and it runs fine on ethanol. "We built it that way. It’s fast!" he says. Today’s cars with modern fuel systems run fine on ethanol-laced gasoline. But his old cars don’t and he has no choice.
Categories: General / Misc
Years ago I owned a Bentley, NF 3906; and I spent many hours bringing it back to life. The story has never been told because Brian Morgan had written his account of a rebuild in ‘The Review’ and it made me ashamed at my feeble effort. However whilst browsing through an old copy of ‘The Review’ (January 1961), I found an article 'GT 8773 is tidied up'. In it I noticed some parallels with my efforts with NF 3906. Also in a recent 'Review' an article on ‘Why I own a Bentley’ with a footnote from the Editor 'Any more reasons'. That footnote more or less tipped the scales and although I don’t now own a Bentley, I did once and here’s why and how.
Categories: 3 litre
Sporting Cars on Road & Track: The Super-Sports Austin Seven
When the ordinary model of the Austin Seven made its appearance in the year 1923, few motorists had the slightest idea that it was destined to reach the high position it occupies to-day in the esteem of the sporting motorist, and the present "Brooklands" Super-Sports model certainly opens up possibilities for many a keen owner to whom the ownership of a really fast car had previously been a cherished ambition.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
As each year's racing season draws to a close, it is as well to give a critical glance at its results and notice the features which mark its story, and in. this way it is perhaps opportune to attempt to investigate what 1927 has brought forth. The past year cannot be said to have been brilliantly successful from the motor racing point of view, though it was perhaps better than 1926, but nevertheless it presents certain characteristics which are worth noting.
Categories: Racing
The Inter-University Hill Climb
This year the Annual Inter-University Hill-Climb took place as before, at Ewelme Down, on March 3rd, and resulted in a complete triumph for Cambridge, the scores being 61 to 23. There is no doubt that the Cambridge team were mounted on very much faster machines, as a whole, than their Oxford rivals, and were, in addition, perfectly adequate to handle their swifter vehicles.
Categories: Racing
The Easter Meeting of the B.A.R.C.
EXCELLENT racing was witnessed at Brooklands by a crowd estimated at between 20,000 and 25,000 people on Easter Monday, when the track season commenced with a very successful meeting. No one could possibly complain about the lack of thrills, for J. D. Barclay almost went over the top and regained control after one of the most remarkable skids ever witnessed on the track, whilst the crowd were also delighted by the wonderful performance of the supercharged Salmson, which driven by Mons. A. Goutte, sprung several surprises by putting up some most astounding lap speeds.
Categories: Racing
ANOTHER year has come to an end, another succession of epic battles has been fought out on road and track, and once more we may look back on the year that has passed and see how we stand for the future. There is no doubt that the 1929 season was eminently successful; we must see to it that the future is equally well filled with scope for the racing enthusiast.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
AUGUST 18th, 1928, is a date that should rank high in the history of Motor Car Racing for, as everyone knows, it marked the revival of that one and only British Road Race, the Tourist Trophy. The entries were, considering the circumstances, large, but the withdrawal of the Bentley team was a disappointment to many, especially when one considers the very good chance they had of winning the race, despite the handicap. The withdrawal of the Salmson team caused a certain amount of sorrow to other manufacturers of cars of this size; the Riley people, in particular, were very interested to see how their cars would compare with the French 1,100 c.c. products. For this reason the absence of Scott's Amikar was regretted. However, from an entry list of 57, 44 starters cannot be considered bad.
Categories: Racing
FIERBERT KENSINGTON MOIR, like so many of our motoring personalities, was at first extremely reluctant to disclose the secrets of his horrid past, but with his back to the wall, and faced with. the threat of a fictitious life story (composed with. the aid of a faulty memory and a vivid imagination) he decided that perhaps the truth was preferable, and warmed to his "confession."
Categories: General / Misc
It is a matter of conjecture whether Dr. J. D. Benjafield owes his popularity to his achievements in bacteriology, in which science he has done so much to relieve suffering mankind, or to his meteoric rise to fame in the ranks of the genuine amateur racing motorist. We have had the pleasure of witnessing him at work in his laboratories, where virulent organisms are obedient to his will and almost begin to suspect that he has succeeded in cultivating some potent form of Speed Virus, with which he has secretly innoculated the car he affectionately calls "Baby Bentley."
Categories: General / Misc
The Essex Six Hours Endurance Race
EXCELLENT weather conditions helped to make the Essex Six-Hours Race the success it undoubtedly was, and a considerable crowd enjoyed a fine day's sport. The entry of forty-six provided a very representative field, with an international flavour, as Italian drivers were competing on Alfa Romeo cars, Campbell and Lord Curzon were on Bugattis, an AustroDaimler team was entered, and a German entry was present in the big 36/220 Mercedes. There were few non-starters, notably Miller's second entry-the Delage to be driven by Clowes, the fourth Alfa Romeo, Leitch's four-seater Lea-Francis, and Major Harvey on his Alvis.
Categories: Racing
Sporting events of the month: The Essex Club's Six Hour Race
The Essex Club are to be congratulated on their enterprise in organising the first British race on the lines of the famous Grand Prix D'Endurance. The exigencies of Brooklands prevent the holding of 24 hour races, but as a trial venture, the 6 hour race proved extremely illuminating. A few minutes before 11 o'clock on May 7th the competing cars were lined up along one side of the finishing straight, while drivers and mechanics fidgetted nervously on the other side of the concrete.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The Junior Car Club's Double Twelve Hour Race
The Junior Car Club who conceived the idea of organising a British twenty-four hour race, deserve all the credit they have been given for taking such a bold step as to run a race of this kind for the first time in the history of British Motor Racing.
Categories: Racing
The Story of the First 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923
The year 2013 was the 90th anniversary of the very first 24 Hours of Le Mans. At 4 PM on May 26, 1923, shortly after the onset of a rain shower, the starter's flag fell. And as the assembled cars — of which only one, a Bentley 3.0 Sport, wasn't built in France — scrabbled away on the roughly surfaced road, the rain turned to hail.
Categories: 3 litre
Sporting Cars on Road & Track: No. 1, The Three Litre Bentley
The sporting car, as a class, has characteristically more distinction than that possessed by touring types. Being essentially out of the ordinary, and representing the result of concentration upon a design intended to emphasise particular motoring qualities, the sporting car usually has quite an individuality of its own. Some sporting cars, of course, are much more conventional than others ; whilst there are those which seem to stand quite apart from orthodox standards.
Categories: 3 litre
Recommended Reading: Bentley, Fifty Years of the Marque
"With its focus on one of the world’s most prestigious automobile manufacturers, it’s not surprising that this book about Bentley automobiles is now in its third edition. Enthusiasts the world over have always respected all that company founder W.O. Bentley had achieved, and long admired the cars that bore his name."
Categories: General / Misc
The conspiracy to kill off Bentley Motors
"The reader may perhaps consider this title a little dramatic but a document has come into my posession that can throw some new light over the demise of Bentley Motors. This new document, of which I will apprise the reader shortly, set my mind racing and I started to reread all the relevant Bentley literature. There is a difference between just reading through a book and reading to obtain information from a book. Innocuous statements out of context can be read in a different way when a particular theme is being pursued. In this article I write down my conclusions but ask any reader who has better knowledge to come forward and enlighten us where there is any doubt about the subject matter."
Categories: General / Misc
The 1930s adventures of 4½-litre Reg JB 1850
"Reading of other's experiences with vintage cars has filled me with nostalgia for one of my own of long ago — surely one of the most entertaining high performance cars ever made — a supercharged 4½-litre Bentley. I shall always remember my first sight of the 'blower'. I had an ordinary 4½-litre at the time and had driven up to H. M. Bentley's in Hanover Street to discuss some modification — and there in the showroom stood the perfect car, a 4½ with a shining black open four-seater body with screen folded flat and two aeroscreens in position: I had to have it and a deal was struck. 'H.M.' had had the engine stripped and new bearings fitted as well as everything else possible done and I started off with a virtually new car and drove it 75,000 miles with only normal decoking and brake relining having to be done in the course of them." — Owner of JB 1850 in the 1930s
Categories: 4½ Litre
The Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin Celebration Rally
By now, the Tim Birkin Celebration Rally is history. All in all, the Rally - according to numerous feedbacks and our own feeling - was a good success. Though, the weather could have been a bit nicer with us; but the participants were all experienced and keen drivers and didn't blame for some rain, not even for the snow on the Grimsel Pass in the Central Alps of Switzerland!
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Celebration of Le-Mans Bentley Boys
Maybe it's the word 'boys' that makes the phrase ring. We know they were men, but somehow it's the image of 'schoolboy' larks which cements the legend of the Bentley Boys. It's rooted in the time, too: the 1920s, when men with inherited wealth didn't have to work, paid racing drivers were rare and the amateur ideal was still admired. Who were these grown-up boys?
Categories: General / Misc
"After the heavy rains and flooding we started the Colorado Grand today driving from Conifer to Vail where everybody is gathering. Derek MacNeil is my trusted co driver again, his second Grand. Leaving Conifer I turned over the steering wheel to him to get his brain adjusted to the Bentley gearbox. After about 45 minutes he found all the gears without brushing the teeth, he even managed to shift from 4th straight into 1st. We stopped for coffee and I could relax. There is still a bit of monsoon moisture left in the atmosphere, so we had a couple of sprinkles, but we should be basically dry for the rest of the week..."
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley Speed Six wins England’s St. James’s Concours of Elegance
Probably the most famous vintage Bentley of all, the sinister-looking Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman Coupe built for Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato in 1930 and today owned by American Bentley collector Bruce R. McCaw, took the Pullman Trophy for Best of Show at this past weekend’s 2013 St. James’s Concours of Elegance. For years, many believed that this Gurney Nutting Coupe was the car that Barnato drove in his famous March 1930 race against the Calais-Mediterranee Express, or as it was better known, the Blue Train; according to Bentley, however, McCaw’s research determined that the Gurney Nutting Coupe wasn’t built until after the race took place and that Barnato actually drove a Mulliner-bodied Speed Six saloon, now also owned by McCaw.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Record-setting Blower Bentley temporarily banned from leaving United Kingdom
In June of 2012, the 1929 Bentley 4 1/2 Liter supercharged single-seater – once piloted by Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin to a Brooklands Outer Loop record-breaking speed of more than 137 MPH – sold for 5,042,000 British pounds ($7,907,530) at Bonhams’s Goodwood auction. The price set a new record for the most expensive English car ever sold at auction, and little is known about its anonymous buyer except for this: He or she is not a resident of the United Kingdom. Now that latter fact has led the United Kingdom to block the car from leaving the country.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Sir Henry Birkin and his supercharged Bentley 'Blower'
The export of the world's most expensive Bentley has been put on hold by the UK government, which has described the 1929 car as of "outstanding significance". But what do we know about the legendary "Blower" and the enigmatic aristocrat, Sir Henry Birkin, who spent his fortune developing it? Sir Henry, who was known widely by the nickname Tim, was famed as a top racing driver, always dapper in his trademark silk neckerchief flapping in the wind as he tore around Brooklands, the Nurburgring or Le Mans. Using the family fortune made through Nottingham lace, Sir Henry travelled the world, living the glamorous life of a 1920s racing hero as one of the "Bentley Boys". But he did not drive to win - he raced for the love of speed and to improve the standing of British motorsport, according to his great-great-nephew Sir John Birkin - a filmmaker who worked on a 1995 drama starring Rowan Atkinson as Sir Henry.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Blower Bentley Featured at 2013 Bonhams Quail Lodge
Bonhams will offer a significant vintage Bentley automobile at its upcoming Quail Lodge sale in Carmel, California on Friday August 16th, 2013. The car, a 1931 Bentley 4½-Litre Supercharged Le Mans Roadster, known by aficionados as a “Blower Bentley,” is considered the holy grail of Bentleys among well-heeled collectors. Just 50 production versions of the seminal classic were built in order to meet criteria required to race at the fabled circuit more than 80 years ago.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
The Eight-Litre: Bentley's Last is Bentley's Best
The 8-litre Bentley is the car considered by many to be Walter Owen Bentley's masterpiece, as well as one of the finest examples of the thoroughbred motorcar. It followed a succession of Bentley automobiles whose impact on the motoring world is held in high esteem to this day and is all the more amazing considering the twelve short years of the company's existence.
Categories: 8 litre
Behind the Wheel: Driving the Bentley 8-Litre
The 8-litre Bentley is the car considered by many to be Walter Owen Bentley's masterpiece, as well as one of the finest examples of the thoroughbred motorcar. It followed a succession of Bentley automobiles whose impact on the motoring world is held in high esteem to this day and is all the more amazing considering the twelve short years of the company's existence.
Categories: 8 litre
Blower Bentley Team Car Featured at 2013 Mille Miglia
Bentley Motors competed in the 2013 Mille Miglia with two unique 4½ Litre Supercharged “Blowers” – a 1930 Le Mans race car belonging to perhaps the most famous and daring of the Bentley Boys and a company demonstrator that is still going strong even after nine decades on the road. Richard Charlesworth, Bentley’s Director of Royal and VIP Relations, who has helped prepare the car for its third Mille Miglia challenge at Bentley’s Crewe headquarters, explains, “We take great pride in making sure all the cars Bentley owns continue to regularly compete or run and are not museum exhibits, which is very much the Bentley way, and we are all looking forward to the unique Mille Miglia experience.”
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley 4½ Litre Blower review
WO Bentley might not have agreed with supercharging his 4½-litre model, but the result is surely the quintessence of Bentley lore that every schoolboy should know. Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin and his Blower Bentley are one of the most gallant man and machine partnerships, up there with Horatio Nelson and the Victory, Guy Gibson and his Dambusters Lancaster and Andy Green and Thrust SSC. Read about the test Chassis No. SM3917 was put to in the recently concluded Mille Miglia.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Iconic Blower Bentleys primed for Mille Miglia challenge
Bentley Motors competed in this year’s Mille Miglia with two unique 4½ litre Supercharged “Blowers”; a 1930 Le Mans race car belonging to perhaps the most famous and daring of the Bentley Boys and a company demonstrator that is still going strong even after nine decades on the road. The No. 2 Team Car — raced at Le Mans by Captain Tim Birkin — was brought by Bentley Motors in 2000 and has been regularly campaigned across the world by the company ever since. Richard Charlesworth, Bentley’s Director of Royal and VIP Relations, who has helped prepare the car for its third Mille Miglia challenge at Bentley’s Crewe headquarters... (Bentley Media press release prior to this year's Mille Miglia.)
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The history of Supercharger MS3926 and more
We bring you an extract from the book The Spirit of Competition, By Dr. Frederick A. Simeone outlining the history of serial no. MS3926. "I wanted to fill in some information on our blower car, MS3926. Reason I think I should do this is because, through your site, I was amazed at how few cars have original engines, transmissions, and most notably, bodies..." says Dr. Simeone, renowned neurosurgeon, automotive historian and museum owner.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
If you are a hard-core Vintage Bentley enthusiast, the first question is, "Will I learn anything new in these books or are they just a rehash of previous Bentley books?" Having read everything Bentley that I have been able to lay my hand on since my youth in the 1950s, I have good news. James Taylor notes in the introduction that he recognizes the abundance of previously printed Vintage Bentley literature over the last 80 years and the current crop of books available...
Categories: General / Misc
Trans-European camping road trip… in a 1926 Bentley
When one thinks about doing a camping trip of a life time – a 4100-km grand tour of Europe – they think long and hard about what type of car they should take on such a journey. They may think of taking a VW Westfalia or a Volvo wagon. Maybe even a small SUV. What doesn’t come to anyone’s mind is taking an antique Bentley.
Categories: 3 litre
Oil filter and circulation system in Vintage Bentleys
"Should the oil filter and circulation system on an early 3 Litre (or any other Vintage Bentley) be maintained as original or can it, or should it be improved or replaced? There have been several attempts in the past and apparently with good results. One disadvantage is that originality is altered. In some cases, drastically. There have been several replacement filter systems suggested in the past. Going a step further are the modifications that were done to The Great American Racer, an early 3 Litre owned by Dick Burdick that has made several rally runs across the United States. The objective was to limit engine wear and increase reliability with a modern oil pump/filter system on chassis 392."
Categories: General / Misc
The story behind the 1921 Bentley 3-Litre, the world's oldest production Bentley
In August of 1921, two years after putting down his deposit, Llewelyn took delivery of the first customer Bentley car, Chassis #3. The third chassis became the first delivery partly due to PR and partly due to production methods in the early days of the automobile... Chassis #3 was offered up for auction by New Englander Thurston Twigg-Smith Jr, in 2011, who also owns a 1928 4.5-Litre Bentley and bought the 3-Litre in 1994, complete but in pieces, after having followed its ownership for years...
Categories: 3 litre
Ethanol-laced fuel was not sold when our cars were built. It rots the metal and gaskets in carburetors, and should not be used in any Bentley. An RREC Bulletin advises against the use of ethanol-laced fuel. According to a club member, "ethanol (alcohol) is a solvent and by itself can do harm to gaskets and sealant products as used in older engines." Ethanol-laced fuel is also hard on our engines because it causes them to run hotter, with even lower fuel efficiency than is now the case - and that is saying something.
Categories: General / Misc
Celebrating W.O.'s Masterpieces
Bentleys are a unique breed among classic automobiles, because you're just as, if not more, likely to see an 85-year-old Bentley being driven hard on a tour or raced on a track as you are to see one on a manicured concours lawn. And Bentley owners love to learn about their cars' individual histories and to share information with one another. There are Bentley clubs around the world that celebrate the cars, draw together owners and are storehouses for information, but the acknowledged online home of that enthusiasm is VintageBentleys. org.
Categories: General / Misc
Vintage Bentley cars in showbiz
There are many movies all about cars, with a small amount of plot, others featuring long dramatic car chases, but there are also many movies and TV shows where the choice of car helps to define the character of the hero or villain, highlight the fashions of the time the film was made or even transform and otherwise ordinary film into an iconic one... We have put together a list of Vintage Bentley cars that have been in showbiz...
Categories: All models
This rebuild story of the Wright family's 1929 Chassis no. UK3285 was received from Donald Wright in March 2009. (Unfortunately, we had misplaced a batch of e-mails around that time due to a server upgrade. Some of them reappeared from our backups recently, and we we are delighted to be able to present this story to you, though, some three years after the event...)
Categories: 4½ Litre
Vintage Bentleys Galore: South African Tour, 1990
More than 60 old Bentleys from all over the world toured around South Africa in March 1990. These were brought to South Africa from all around the world to take part in the Total Vintage Bentley Tour.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
'Birkin' Bentley sells for £5 million
A record-breaking British car from the 'tween-war years has broken another record at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed sale this Friday 29 June. It is now the most expensive Bentley ever sold at public auction. The ex-Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin 1929 4½-liter supercharged 'Blower' Bentley single-seater, which when new raised the Brooklands Outer Circuit record to 137mph, sold for £5,042,000. The Bentley was sold as part of a collection once owned by famed watchmaker George Daniels of seven cars, two motorcycles and assorted automobilia.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Legendary Bentley sets £4.5 million* auction record
Just 35 miles away from the fabled Brooklands race circuit where it astonished thousands of spectators eight decades ago by sprinting its way into the record books, Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin’s dramatic 4½ Litre Supercharged ‘Blower’ single seat racing machine returned to record-breaking form by reaching a sale price of £4.5 million when auctioned by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
No. 1 Birkin Blower that hit 137mph in 1931 could sell for £5M
Bentley Blower No. 1 (Chassis No. HB3402) is a racing car developed from the Bentley 4½ Litre by Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin to win the Le Mans twenty four hour race. The car came second in the 1930 French Grand Prix, and held the Brooklands circuit speed record at 137.96 miles per hour (222.03 km/h), from 1931 to 1934. This car could sell for £5M at the Bonhams June 29, 2012 auction -- making it the most expensive British-built car ever sold publicly. It would smash the £3.5million paid in 2007 for a 1904 Rolls-Royce, with inflation adjustments making it around £4 million today.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Vintage to the fore! - Report: BDC Britain by Bentley Tour 2011
Celebrating the Bentley Drivers' Club's 75th birthday: The tour got underway with a gala dinner at London’s Savoy Hotel on 4th June, followed by another dinner at the RAC Club in Pall Mall the next day, before the driving part started in earnest on Tuesday 7th June 2011, departing from north Essex. The month long tour which consists of four different sections, finishes at Leeds Castle, Kent, on 4 July 2011.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Before you say, "Another Bentley racing history?", note that this one combines the W.O. Bentley racing era with the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen built Bentley race cars and their successes. Vintage Bentley racing does overwhelmingly dominate the book and if you wish to pursue the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen years, there are some fine books that cover those subjects more extensively that this Venebles' book. One of the strong points of this book is that it has very good coverage of the events and details with good photographic reference. More important for many Vintage Bentley enthusiasts, especially those that are new to Vintage Bentleys -- this book is relatively inexpensive compared to making the effort and spending a vast amount of money collecting all the out-of-print books covering Vintage Bentley racing.
Categories: General / Misc
Iconic Bentley Blowers at the great Mille Miglia adventure
W.O. Bentley's gift for creating cars that combined the speed of a thoroughbred racing machine with an enviable reputation for strength and comfort, allowing them to effortlessly cover hundreds of miles, is set to be underlined once again at the 2012 Mille Miglia when two 4½ litre Bentley Blowers take on the classic 1,000 mile endurance test.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Appeal Over Vintage Car Case Upheld
An appeal court recently heard a case on whether a vintage car should be deemed authentic after a good number of its original components were replaced. An earlier decision to award a buyer following significant work was done on a 1930 Speed Six Bentley was considered unreliable by the appeal court.
Categories: General / Misc
Update: Mercedes Brewer vs. Stanley Mann court case Appeal upheld over rare vintage Bentley
Believe it or not! A vintage car can still be considered authentic even following a substantial rebuild where many of its original parts are replaced, an appeal court heard yesterday.
Categories: General / Misc
Mad Dogs, Englishmen and Texans
1,000 miles in a day... in a 1925 LeMans Bentley... with the top down... and the temperature below freezing... is a feat that should be attempted only by mad dogs, Englishmen and Texans
Categories: 3 litre
The Family Jewel: Really Living With a Blower Bentley
When the first supercharged Bentley debuted at the 1929 British International Motor Show, Charles Noble was only eleven years old, but he was already obsessed with Bentleys, spending countless hours with his nose pressed against the window of Jack Barclay's London dealership admiring the cars within. "His heroes were the great drivers of the day," recalls his son, Roger. "Woolf Barnato, Tim Birkin — all the Bentley Boys. He would say, 'I'm going to have one of those cars one day.' When he died, he had seven."
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Celebrating BDC's 75th anniversary: The Bentley Boys are on the road again, this time taking part in the "Britain by Bentley Tour". Thirty-one days of magnificent driving, travelling some 3,000 miles throughout England, Scotland and Wales. A hundred participants from 13 different countries...
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
On June 21, 2011 Bentley Motors rolled out the red carpet to welcome over a hundred members of the Bentley Drivers Club (BDC) - and their fifty Bentleys - to its headquarters in Crewe. The visit is part of the "Britain by Bentley" tour which celebrates the club's 75th anniversary by emulating the tradition of the grand tour and traversing some 3,000 miles of UK roads in a range of models that span 80 years of Bentley's history.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Read Brian Strong's experience with Birkin Blower Bentley chassis HB3402 driven by Bill Mason one day in 1966... "Bill opened the garage doors and there was a Blower Bentley, British Racing Green and enormous. 'Would I like a ride?' There was only one possible answer to that question..."
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Although the combined urban and rural population of Timaru District in New Zealand was less than 60,000, from 1928 to 2010, it was home to 19 Bentleys which arrived and departed at different times, each one owned, pampered and motored enthusiastically. During the nine years between 1976 and 1985 there were seven Bentleys of varied styles and pedigrees in the district for the whole of that time.
Categories: All models
Stanley Mann loses Brewer vs. Mann case over bogus 'Bentley'
A classic car enthusiast has won £94,000 in damages after paying £430,000 for a vintage Bentley, unaware that only one small part of the car was genuine... Judge Anthony Thornton QC ruled that the car had been so heavily worked on that it "was no longer capable of being accurately described as a 1930 Bentley Speed Six".
Categories: General / Misc
A thousand miles through the Rockies
This year I had the opportunity to participate for the second time in the Colorado Grand, starting and ending in Vail, during the third week of September 2010 covering some 1100 miles in 4 days. The route selection took the 80 pre-1960 racing and sports cars through beautiful canyons, mesas and mountain passes between 4500 and 12000 ft in altitude.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley Drivers’ Club New Zealand Tour – Serious Touring – 184
My only complaint about vintage Bentleys is that by the time you can afford one, you’ve got a lot older and a lot less nimble at climbing into high cockpits. But once in them, what a real blast from the golden era of automobiling (new word, feel free to use it). A vintage Bentley really does thunder down the Queen’s Highway, long bonnet stretching out before you, aero screens shovelling the wind above your face so the dandruff is blown out of your hair, and behind you the bellow of the exhaust rivalling a WWII Lancaster bomber...
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Classic racing cars turn heads
Mike and Marianne Knowles, from Auckland, along with their 1924 3-litre short-chassis, red-label, speed-model Bentley were a part of the New Zealand Bentley Tour 2010, which started on January 20 in Christchurch and finished on March 6 in Auckland.
Categories: 3 litre
Not so vintage? Battle of the racing Bentley
An American lawyer is suing a Hertfordshire classic car dealer over the restored Speed Six she bought for £430,000. Mercedes Travis Brewer claims Stanley Mann wrongly told her the vehicle had been restored with original and authentic engine and components.
Categories: General / Misc
Driver still motoring in first car - 54 years later
Motorist Mike Harrison is still driving his first car, 54 years after paying £150 for it. The 74-year-old was 20 years old when he bought the black Bentley sports coupe in 1956 after passing his test. Now it is one of only three left in the country and valued at £250,000.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Do you remember your first car? 'Yes, it cost £150 in 1956 — and I'm still driving it'
Many people eventually get round to trading in their first car. But not Mike Harrison. He loves his 1931 black Bentley sports coupe so much that he's still driving it, 54 years after he bought it. Mr Harrison was 20 when he paid £150 (about £3,000 now) for the car after passing his test in 1956.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Bentley 3 & 4½ Litre - W.O's winged wonders
Despite the legends that surround the original Bentley cars—those sometimes called “W.O.s” after the company founder—a great portion of those near 90-year-old cars are in fine running order today. Enthusiast motoring is these cars’ raison d’être, and the faithful who maintain them take pride in upholding the founder’s ideal.
Categories: All models
Chassis 141: The Story of the First LeMans Bentley, Clare Hay
"Chassis 141" tells the story of the first British entry in the famed LeMans 24 Hour Race in 1923. This is the origin of one of the most legendary teams in motorsport history — the "Bentley Boys" — a group of wealthy playboys who drove Bentley racing cars in major events across Europe... Anyone who enjoys vintage cars and restoring them, will find this book an inspiration to get out and turn a wrench on their car. From rusty parts to a fine sporting machine — just takes encouragement, and this book is a shot of adrenalin. Recommended to the true enthusiast.
Categories: 3 litre
Thirty vintage Bentley automobiles shipped from England, South Africa and Australia by members of the Bentley Drivers Club will gather at the B&O Railroad Station and, after some interview time, will head on up toward Route 70 to begin their month-long "USA East Coast Fall Tour." The route will take them up to New England and back down to Delmarva before they start heading home, after driving some 3,000 miles. The parading cars date from 1925 to brand new; Le Mans racing models to long-winged touring cars to "saloons" (sedans); in colors from the popular racing green to "chocolate and cream" to unusual "Wildberry."
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The Bentley Drivers' Club Gallery
Approximately thirty six Bentleys and their owners, members of the Bentley Drivers Club having arrived from England, Scotland, Australia and other far-flung parts of the world, commenced their "USA Fall Tour" on Friday September 4th 2009. They drove up North Rolling Road to Frederick Road, then on through Ellicott City (Main Street) to Route 40, I-70 then north on Route 15 through Pennsylvania up to New England, then back south to Colonial Williamsburg, Maryland`s Eastern Shore and home in late September.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The "Official Start" of the BDC's North East U.S.A. Tour 2009
The cars were flagged off to the skirling of the Gael Mor Pipe Band, headed for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Niagara Falls and points north, to return south to Maryland`s Eastern Shore, where they will participate in part of the "St Michaels Concours d'Elegance", then to Williamsburg, Virginia, back to Baltimore and home... Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see over thirty vintage Bentleys, as well as a few "moderns" gathered less than one hundred yards from my front door!
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The 'adventure' was over some 2,500 km of very well-made roads and took a fairly leisurely 19 days. It was really more of a 'Red Carpet / Grand Hotel Tour' than a rally, but good fun... After five days of culture and general indolence, some serious motoring was in prospect as we headed towards the United Arab Emirates, via a 135 km transit through Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, the Saudis do not seem to like tourists...
Categories: Racing
The car that nearly died of shame
Have you ever known a Bentley by sight over a period of years and then, almost by accident, found you have become its owner? Have you ever worked on and restored and damn nearly lived in a Bentley, and then sold it without ever driving it? Those two experiences, and little else, represent my relations with old XV 6601.
Categories: 4½ Litre
There were 20 proper cars on the tour and five of those WOs were from Down Under, we had one 3-litre, a 3/4.5 litre and three 4.5 litres dating from 1925 to 1929. All Australasian cars finished the tour without major mishaps or major mechanical issues... Getting to the start in Canada was the easy bit, and a few reasonably easy days of "only 200+ miles" during the first week through all the fantastic scenery that British Columbia has to offer...
Categories: Racing
Kurt Furger and co-driver Roger toured Canada and Alaska in Kurt's 4/8-litre in June 2009. "The month of June was selected because it is after the snow melts and before the black flies start biting!!" commented Kurt. Thirty-four Bentleys and one Aston Martin participated covering some 6000 miles in 25 days. The group travelled 400 miles on most days.
Categories: Racing
Bentley history takes center stage at Pebble Beach
Bentley's blend of aristocratic cars and pure speed will take center stage at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance as the storied British luxury carmaker marks its 90th anniversary. And it will celebrate in style at the Northern California concours, with four classes of Bentleys set on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley 3-litre, 100-mph model
Only 18 100mph-model Bentley 3-litres were made -- the lightest and the quickest of the breed. Malcolm McKay drives a rare survivor in amazingly original condition... Late in 1925, prosperous butcher and part-time gentleman racer at Brooklands, Henry Leeson, ordered from Bentley Motors a Super Sports: the new, ultimate 3-litre. The chassis was despatched to the Surbiton Coach and Motor Works, where craftsmen painstakingly constructed the most beautiful body ever to grace a Vintage Bentley...
Categories: 3 litre
Chassis No. YX5113: Original-Bodied Vintage Bentleys in America
"It is becoming increasingly rare to find a vintage Bentley of any chassis type that was originally supplied to its first retail purchaser as a closed car. So many cars have been converted to open bodies in the style of the various Vanden Plas, LeMans-type open tourers. Locating an original unmodified closed car, photographing and riding in it is a rare treat. Our featured car is exactly that, especially given its history and the circumstances that might have led to its original body being scrapped and replaced with another."
Categories: 8 litre
Vintage Bentleys in Southern Africa
It is of interest that some 40 vintage Bentleys are resident in South Africa (including two in Zimbabwe). This total consists of 13 3-litre; six 6.5-litre cars (two of which are Speed Sixes), 17 4.5 litre cars; two 8-litre cars and two 4.5 litre re-engined 3-litre cars.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Bentley has a longer association with turbocharged cars than you might think. Andrew English drives the earliest example of the breed.
Categories: 8 litre
Vintage Bentley Instruction Books
You will find a new write-up on the home page of this web site, titled Restoration Update, that introduces you to our Restoration section, if you are not already familiar with it. Still in its infancy, we are making progress to become the world's largest source of Vintage Bentley restoration information. You are all invited to contribute information.
Categories: All models
I must start this story from the beginning and that is well before we set out from Rawalpindi in a 4½ litre (1929, chassis RL3431) for England. It will also be noted that, had there been no Bentley Drivers Club, there would have been no journey, at least as far as I am concerned.
Categories: 4½ Litre
A Bentley that cuts a dash — but where's the sat-nav?
Bought in 1928, by an Australian marine engineer names John 'Jumbo' Goddard, for the princely sum of £350 (about £15,000 today), the car was altered by Goddard in 1954 when he replaced the original three-litre engine with a Bentley eight-litre motor he had bought second-hand after the war. The car was also given a new sporty body and hydraulic brakes — a necessity considering the astonishing speed the vehicle was now capable of.
Categories: 8 litre
Chassis No. SB2769: Original-Bodied Vintage Bentleys in America
In 1929, Dr. William Leib, an American physician residing at 118 Hillwood, Hillsborough, California ordered a new Speed 6 Bentley. The chassis number SB2769 came with engine number SH2729. He ordered his car through Rootes Ltd. It is an 11’-6“ chassis, the shortest available for speed sixes and came with a 13/50 differential and a short steering column. The Bentley factory records in the BDC archives show that the car was for export and that the body was built in France.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Chassis No. MR3390: Original-Bodied Vintage Bentleys in America
The original purchaser, W. M. Wallace, Jr., then residing at Stirling, Scotland ordered the 10’ 10½” chassis with 15/53 diff. and “C” gearbox. It was also equipped with the Tecalamit one-shot lubrication system fitted by the factory. The centralized lubrication system was a highly unusual feature on a 4½ liter chassis, it being more commonly supplied with the 8 liter chassis. The open sports tourer body created by Thrupp & Maberly (body no. 5187) is unique to this car. The original UK registration mark was MS34.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Chassis No. YM5044: Original-Bodied Vintage Bentleys in America
Collector cars are not unlike their owners in that they can progress through stages in their lives. A car has a birth, active life, middle age and maturity, then old age. Then, sadly most finally expire after a long and active life, many with ignominious ends. The subject car, YM5044, went through such a progression and even had a burial. Forty years after its interment, it then rose like Lazarus from the grave to again join the living...
Categories: 8 litre
The following Bentleys entered: 1924 3 Speed, W. & T. van Huystee; 1928 4-1/2, W. & C. Koehne; 1929 4 1/2, Roger Morrison, 1931 4/8, Kurt Furger & Derek MacNeil, 1933 4-1/4 Offord, Miles & Parker Collier.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The 1929 Bentley 4½-Liter Tourer by Vanden Plas enjoyed a macho image based on its Le Mans exploits and no-nonsense engineering.
Categories: 4½ Litre
The 1930 Bentley Mayfair Coupe's 8-liter engine, capable of 100 mph, was designed to knock Rolls-Royce off its pedestal.
Categories: 8 litre
In 1964 'Rusty' Russ-Turner acquired the car of his boyhood dreams. Looking at the car today, one can appreciate just how vivid an impression it must have made when bounding round Brooklands at the height of its fame. It is Captain Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin's Blower Bentley single-seater... Russ-Turner vividly recalls how he was first attracted to both car and driver over 50 years ago: "I think I first saw the car at Brooklands in 1930 and thereafter it was the only reason I went to Brooklands again...
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Sammy himself was never old, he had simply lived a very long time and his chassis and engine, in the last three or four years, had been showing serious signs of wear. He died of a heart attack at his Guildford flat on January 9 (1981), his 94th birthday. He had had a good long life, and to anyone remotely interested in cars, an enviable one...
Categories: All models
The 8-litre was built to be the last word in comfortable saloons of sporting performance and those cars that now have sports bodies have acquired them at a later date; the cars were built in batches of 25 and sent off to the various coachbuilders in chassis form. Since the majority of the coachworks of the era were in the north-west corner of London, Bentley's Cricklewood works was well placed… Of the 100-odd 8-litres built, some 23 were given H. J. Mulliner bodies; the next most popular choice was Thrupp and Maberley.
Categories: 8 litre
Vintage Bentley Tour of France 2008 (Loire and Bordeaux)
Roberta and Bryan Downes (owners of Chassis no. PB3537) run vintage Bentley wine tours as a hobby for friends and wine loving Vintage Bentley enthusiasts who enjoy driving their cars. This group of vintage Bentley lovers began the wine tour on June 7, which went on until June 20, 2008.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
It was in January 1919 that the original Bentley Motors company was formed, and in October of that year when the very first overhead-camshaft 3-litre engine first burst into life. Since then, in more than 60 years of corporate existence, Bentleys have been built at Cricklewood. Derby and Crewe, in many forms, and under several masters. In those 60 years, too, everything about the marque has changed completely... The marque which was once the most prestigious of all British 'vintage' machines, is now virtually forgotten.
Categories: All models
The Autocar road tested a 44-litre Bentley when the model was current, the account appearing in their issue of February 22nd, 1929. This is what they had to say...
Categories: 4½ Litre
One of the problems of having access to Motor and Autocar archives is that research can go on (or ever Take the Birkin Bentley in last month's issue; I mentioned that the bonnet had been used in the 1929 TT and that the underside of the tail still bore the scorch marks of a fire on an outer circuit car. Flipping through the 1929 Motor volume. I came across an article on the construction of that car. The reprinted photographs show how it was done. The frame is made up of spring steel strips; longitudinal strips are anchored to and let into wooden frames at each end and a mass of transverse strips are held on to the main longerons by bent-over H-shaped aluminium clips. This basic shape was then clad in fabric with the usual necessary padding between. Not only was the construction very light but it could be jumped on and would still return to its original shape.
Categories: Racing
Full Bore: Bentley 4½ Supercharged
A Vintage Bentley is a pretty impressive car to look at and to sit in; a Blower 4 1/2 is even more so. Having absorbed the large steering wheel close to the chest, the mass of instruments and drip-feeds on the dashboard, you look up the road — hopefully a dusty ribbon vanishing into the distance like the Mulsanne straight back in 1930; at the end of the long louvred bonnet you see the rounded shoulders of a polished radiator with a vast quick-action filler cap silhouetted on top.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Men & Machines: Sir Henry (Tim) Birkin
At the height of his career, Birkin's biggest regret was the lack of interest shown by British teams in Grand Prix racing. As none were forthcoming after Sunbeam withdrew, he optimistically tried to make a Grand Prix machine out of a 4 1/2-litre Bentley by adding a supercharger. And he very nearly succeeded, in the French Grand Prix of all races!
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Having joined Bentley Motors Ltd as an apprentice in 1928 and stayed on as a salesman until the Company was bought by Rolls-Royce, I drove all the models when they were new. Later, in the 1930s, I was demonstrating and selling all sorts of cars for an agency in London. I often tested these cars at Brooklands and many of them were "used" Bentleys sold to the old Bentley clientele. Since then I have owned and raced several other Bentleys and driven every model. So in one way or another I feel that I know the marque, whether it be from Cricklewood, Derby, or Crewe.
Categories: All models
Sammy Davis — Racing Master of all Trades
Sammy Davis is something of a legend these days, 86 now, (this article was published in 1974!) and twinkling back through a career in and around racing cars that goes back as far as racing itself... He remembers his first Grand Prix experience in 1924 at Lyons... Two years later he was with the Bentley team at Le Mans and set for second place with 20 minutes to go when he ran out of brakes and plunged into the sand at Mulsanne with the 3-litre Bentley carrying the number seven. It was this same brake problem that sent Dr Benjafield into a tree in a later race after he had bought it from the factory for his personal use...
Categories: 4½ Litre
Bentley Tour Battles On — Vintage Bentley Tour of New Zealand, 2008
In February 2008, thirty Bentleys, all built in the 1920s and 1930s, participated in the "Vintage Bentley Tour of New Zealand, 2008". The 5000km around the South Island is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Driving the "very physical cars" through extremes of cold and heat took strength, she Jenny Ford, BDC International chairwoman . "You can feel it in your shoulders at the end of the day." She said said many of the drivers were in their 70s and were "true adventurers".
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
Of all the designs emanating from the concise and fertile brain of the late Walter Owen Bentley, that quiet and retiring Engineer and Gentleman, the 4 cylinder 4½-litre (actually 4398 cc.) gave the fewest teething troubles and perhaps afforded him the maximum of personal satisfaction. It was also the favourite model of his regular racing drivers, who found it more flexible than the 3-litre, and who appreciated the inherent safety and stability given to it by its understeering characteristics...
Categories: 4½ Litre
If you scorn all that's glossy and novel And treat fashion with lofty disdain; If your house is a half-timbered hovel And you like going out in the rain; If your money's pre-decimal mintage And you only read mouldy old tracts - Then your Bentley is probably vintage And your head's full of Technical Facts.
Categories: All models
Tour Report: 2008 NAVBM in Stowe, Vermont
We started up the cars on a cool morning and drove to the Vintage Garage in Stowe where we got some insight into rebuilding Bentley engines... On the last day we traveled for three hours on back roads with several stretches of gravel... This was our first NAVBM and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting the interesting members and having the opportunity to share car stories. We all had good fun...
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
What more appropriate place to test Britain's, maybe the world's, fastest pre-war Bentley than on the Melbourne Loop, where the supercharged 650bhp Mercedes once roared in anger. Climbing in behind the lorry-like four-spoke wheel and dropping down into the snug black leather bucket seat, thoughts of the rubber burnt by Caracciola and Seaman comes to mind as my thumb aims at the cabinet-knob sized starter. Under the long bonnet of this exotic. Royal Blue vintage special is 8 litres of serious supercharged grunt...
Categories: 3 litre
Thanks to the efforts of their energetic hon. secretary, Stanley Sedgwick, and the courtesy of the Office of Works, the Bentley Drivers' Club staged a very good rally on Saturday, February 9, on the strip of road in Kensington Gardens which fronts the Albert Memorial and which has been closed to traffic since the blitz.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The Bentley Club's Silverstone meeting last Saturday was the ideal of what a club show should be. The very fact that the normal crowd of paying spectators were banned made it a purely friendly and very personal affair reminiscent of the best days of old Brooklands.
Categories: Racing
Personal Triumphs: Duff and Clement's 1924 Win
The later Bentley deeds at Le Mans have been much celebrated, but one way and another the two men who put Le Mans on the map of England remain almost unsung. J. F. Duff and F. C. Clement were there when the first 24-hour race was run in 1923; their Bentley finished high up, and back they came for more the following year.
Categories: Racing
On June 18 it was twenty years from that famous crash following which a much-tattered Bentley won at Le Mans. Today, looking back at that incident, it seems to both "Benjy" (Dr. J.D. Benafield) and myself as fresh as when it happened; and not even the modifications that the long-bearded old gent with the hour-glass timepiece has power to introduce have made the memory one whit less satisfactory...
Categories: Racing
Talking of Sports Cars: Colossus of Roads
Proverbially there is many an untrue word spoken in all seriousness, but when in 1930 The Autocar described the then new 8-litre Bentley as "not a sports model in any shape or form" the writer could hardly be blamed for failing to foresee that a track-rigged edition (re-styled the Barnato Hassan Special) would later raise the Brooklands lap record to 142.6 m.p.h.. or that later still the same machine would become one of the fastest sports cars on the roads of Britain.
Categories: Racing
Talking of Sports Cars: Blower Bentley
Resolved: to get to the end of this page firmlv resisting the temptation to wamble off about the Great Green Cars at Le Mans and, if possible, without committing more than a score or so of the great green clichés that bewitch one's typing finger at the very thought of a Blower 4 1/2.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Talking of Sports Cars: Supercharged Bentley
The blown 4 1/2-litre Bentley is so strongly associated in most peoples' minds with the racing team backed by the Hon. Dorothy Paget and led by Sir Henry Birkin that one is apt to forget the fact that it was a standard production model...
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
In those days when we were driving the famous Bentleys it never occurred to any of us that the great green battle-cruiser-like machines of which we were so fond would achieve an almost legendary fame years and years afterwards. Yet so it seems today. Take this small tale, for instance...
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
In the series of three articles on "Restoring Old time Bentleys" which were published in "The Motor" at the beginning of 1943, I attempted to deal with most of the points, which are likely to puzzle the amateur owner during an overhaul. During the past two and a half years I have received a large number of letters from Bentley owners. They raised questions of general interest. Therefore I propose to go over some of the past ground in a different manner and raise some fresh topics as well; I will also give a little more information about the Speed Six.
Categories: All models
Talking of Sports Cars: A Bentley Hybrid
It is some considerable time since a vintage Bentley came into this series. The example now selected is thoroughly "special" and a decidedly live specimen. At all events it was live to good effect during last year's sprint events, in the hands of its builder and owner, Maurice Brierley, of Speldhurst, Kent. With a cut-down 3-litre chassis and a 4 1/2-litre engine a decidedly potent piece of machinery has been evolved and the car handles very well indeed...
Categories: All models
Talking of Sports Cars: 4 1/2-litre Bentley
The fact that twenty-four old-school Bentleys were present at the recent Bentley Drivers' Club rally at Cobham would seem to show that these cars still retain the affection of many enthusiasts...
Categories: 4½ Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: Speed Six Bentley "Collection"
Vintage Bentley in good measure is provided this week by an account of four Speed Sixes owned in succession by Charles Mortimer, one-time racer of motor cycles, and, in the two Brooklands seasons immediately preceding the war...
Categories: 6½ Litre
When a member of the Bentley Drivers' Club advertises his machine for sale, there must be more than one good reason for that act, especially as the mere threat of such a proceeding may lead to civil war in the family. In the case of B. A. Foster, of Kettering, the reasons were threefold; a large weekly business mileage, official reluctance to grant coupons for a 6 1/2-litre 38 h.p. Bentley, and the current cost of petrol. The threat of civil war came from Mrs. Foster, and from her too, came the suggestion of fitting a Diesel.
Categories: 6½ Litre
It is so tempting to arrange the family of "old-school" Bentleys in ascending order of engine size that it comes as quite a shock to realise that the "6 1/2" is several years senior to the "4 1/2". It came out in 1925, although the now better-known Speed Six did not appear until 1930, and Le Mans, that famous Bentley advertising medium, did not see a six-cylinder model until the same year.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: 8-litre Bentley
Contrast in size of car can certainly be claimed for this week's subject, an 8-litre Bentley, when it is recalled that last week an Austin Seven "special" held the T.O.S.C. stage. The Bentley has a roof, it will be observed, but I feel that there will be few if any dissentients on this score as regards its sports car status.
Categories: 8 litre
To Andorra and Back in 4 1/2 Litre UC 3256
Nothing unique about the title you might say but this trip took place sixty summers ago, just before that last great unpleasantness known as World War 11. It was undertaken in 1939 by four intrepid young men, undergraduates at Clare College, Cambridge. At that time the 4 1/2 was owned by one of them, now retired Brigadier AG Heywood CBE, LVO, MC, who lives today in the beautiful Doverill Valley in South West Wiltshire.
Categories: 4½ Litre
The 4½-litre Bentley — OX 6934
OX 6934 was a 1928 4½ litre Bentley and, although it had no body, petrol was unobtainable, and he didn't know how to drive it, Father forked out £125 and the chassis was pushed round into The Lane and into our garage...
Categories: 4½ Litre
My first intensive phase of vintage motoring came to an end on 19 February 1953 when, having cashed the (uncrossed) Postal Order representing the Queen's Shilling, I arrived at Gibraltar Barracks, Bury St Edmunds, in a Bentley driven by Father. For a few seconds — while I disembarked and said goodbye outside the entrance — I commanded some reverence, but it quickly evaporated when I explained my mission.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Father had moved from a 4½-litre Bentley to the 6½ and now, fancying an 8, acquired GY7850. Well, in those days, the road tax was 25/- per horse-power (RAC rating) and the 8-litre was rated at 45.01hp, which made the annual tax £56/5/- or £15/9/5d per quarter.
Categories: 8 litre
Motor Sport Test: 1924/5 3-litre Bentley
It was most enjoyable to be out in a real motor-car again and to be able to say I had been driving a Bentley at Brooklands! This brief backwards glimpse provided a firm reminder of the unassailable position occupied by the 3-litre Bentley some fifty years ago. Our 1942 account was published just after John Duffs victory at Le Mans, and apart from a later Editor of MOTOR SPORT deciding that in 1926 there was no comparable sporting car, another well-known motoring writer, whose mother bought a new 3-litre, has pointed out that people are apt to forget, now that the 3-litre is a vintage car, what a stupendous reputation it had in its heyday.
Categories: 3 litre
The Evolution of the Vintage Bentley
Bentley cars of the 1920s have been called many things in various countries. For example, "classic", "Cricklewood" W.O. Bentleys, but today the title Vintage Bentley is almost universally used and understood.
Categories: All models
The 6½-litre Bentley — YF 9093
One day Mr. Tyreshoes told Father that he knew of a 6½-litre Bentley - "It's at Old Thoday's place, at Jack's Hill". Father couldn't resist this, and off they went. Jack's Hill is on the old A1 at Stevenage, and Jack's Hill Cafe was a favourite stopping off point for hungry travellers, especially late at night...
Categories: 6½ Litre
The Grand Prix D'endurance for the Rudge-Whitworth Cup, 20th & 21st June, 1925
This, the greatest race for cars in touring trim, took place at Le Mans, starting at 4 p.m. on June 20th, 1925, and finishing 24 hours later… Arriving at the circuit six days before the race, one was immediately impressed by the forward state of the preparations, and, although the course was never officially closed, practice was proceeding more or less continuously night and day; one fears that the people whose houses abutted on the circuit enjoyed but little sleep during this period, as most of the cars engaged had open exhausts, silencing regulations being noticeable by their absence.
Categories: Racing
Regaining the Twenty-four Hours World's Record for Great Britain
It was the result of a conversation with Mr. Hillstead, of Bentley Motors, Ltd., during the course of which he enthused about the staying powers of the Bentley car, that I conceived the idea of going for the "double-twelve" record, at that time the accepted "Supreme Test" of endurance.
Categories: Racing
The Grand Prix D'Endurance: 1926
Great Britain, represented by three Bentleys, experienced very bad luck in not putting up a better show in this event, held at Le Mans on June 12th and 13th… All three Bentleys performed very well, but two experienced mechanical trouble after 12 and 18 hours respectively...
Categories: Racing
The Grand Prix D'Endurance: 1927
The victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race by a 3-litre Bentley is one of which all concerned may feel pretty proud. In England we are able to have no road races at all, and there is nowhere in the country where a race can be held for 24 hours. In spite of this, an English car can go abroad and beat all comers in a race under conditions which our more fortunate continental friends can be much more intimately acquainted with.
Categories: Racing
One of the finest road races ever staged on the Continent or anywhere else was run over the Sarthe circuit at Le Mans, on the 16th and 17th of June. The Sixth Grand Prix of Endurance and Twenty-Four Hour Race proved again a triumph for British cars, and what was probably the finest exhibition of driving and doggedness ever seen over this course was put up by an Englishman on an English car - Capt. H. R. S. Birkin, on the Bentley No. 3.
Categories: Racing
Review of Sir Henry Birkin's Book "Full Throttle"
To many the book will come as a surprise. Their knowledge of Sir Henry will be confined to seeing him hurtling (there is no other word for it) round Brooklands Track in the single-seater Bentley, or driving with polished brilliance at Belfast or Le Mans in Bentleys and Alfa Romeos. To them the thrill of speed and driving skill appears to in his chief concern, and whether he is driving at home or abroad, in an English car or a foreign machine, does not seem to matter so long as he has a good drive.
Categories: Racing
The name of Bentley was by no means unknown in the racing world before the first car bearing it ever made its appearance. All followers of the sport in pre-War days remembered "W.O." on his little D.F.P. in the 1914 T.T., and the plucky performance which he put up. When, therefore, directly after the war it became known that he was going to produce a sports car of his own, interest was thoroughly aroused.
Categories: Racing
The 4 1/2 Supercharged Bentley
When Bentleys first introduced the supercharged edition of their famous 4 1/2-litre model, a number of prospective owners of this type of car held back from purchase until they had seen how the car performed in the chief racing events of the season...
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
The writer went to the 1926 show without a bias of any description but simply requiring a genuine sports car, which would have the wearing qualities of a staid tourer. The number of suitable vehicles, however, was soon narrowed down and a road test gave the decision in favour of the 3-litre Bentley… About this time, following their success at Le Mans, Bentleys put their famous 4 1/2-litre on the market, and having obtained such good service from the 3-litre we decided to sample one of the new models. A trial was followed by arranging a part exchange with Jack Withers, and we duly became the owner of a 4 1/2-litre, not without a tinge of regret at parting from our faithful first Bentley.
Categories: All models
The first car to catch our eye was a special 1982 8-litre Bentley modified for a friend of the late Sir Henry Birkin and fitted with a Corsica four-seater open body designed by McKenzie expressly to meet this client's requirements. This is a truly imposing motor-car… Another interesting McKenzie Bentley is a 4-litre chassis with the 8-litre braking system and a 6 1/2-litre Speed Six engine. Mr. McKenzie has a 4 1/2-litre Bentley of his own which is subjected to experimental modification in the interests of clients, and which he drove in the Bentley Drivers' Handicap at Brooklands last year.
Categories: All models
So many readers are interested in the Bentley marque, and as every owner of an old-school Bentley we meet seems to enthusiastically read Motor Sport we feel that some notes on improving the performance of the old-model Bentleys may prove of interest. We are indebted to Mr. L. G. McKenzie, the well known Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialist, for the information that follows.
Categories: All models
In the following article Peter Robertson-Roger gives some hitherto unpublished information about his two supercharged, 4 1/2-litre Bentleys. They were No. 1 and 4 of the late Sir Henry Birkin's famous team, which was financed by the Hon. Dorothy Paget, and raced during the 1929-31 seasons.
Categories: All models
The first intimation of the existence of CK 8172 was when my friend and colleague, John Hay, returned from a deviously-routed official journey with the news that a quaint Bentley, believed to be a 3-litre, was residing in a breaker's yard at Bradford. A journey was obviously imperative, so we went to hold an inquest on the remains, and found the engine and gearbox complete and apparently undamaged...
Categories: All models
Whether it happens to be their ideal or not, enthusiasts cannot overlook the satisfaction of a drive in a Bentley of the old school. Recently we were able to cover rather less than 100 miles in a rather unusual 4 1/2-litre and definitely the appeal was there...
Categories: 4½ Litre
Sporting Cars on the Road: The Speed Six Bentley
To the man who wants the best, price is not of such vital importance and the connoisseurs, whose number is increasing, will always be prepared to purchase such a car as the 6 1/2-litre Bentley… The most striking thing about this model is the amazing quality of silence at all speeds. One naturally expects a 6-cylinder to be flexible but there are few, which combine flexibility and silence with such an excellent performance...
Categories: 6½ Litre
In pre-war days if you wanted to go fast, you bought a car with a large engine, and the speed you achieved depended largely on how much chassis space you were prepared to sacrifice to the all-important motor. Engine power, braking systems and road-holding have been vastly improved since those far-off days, but the principle still remains the same, and the Bentley which forms the subject of this article came as a refreshing interlude in the stream of small high revving cars which have become almost universal nowadays.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Testing a Second-hander: 6 1/2-litre Bentley of 1928
Because few people can these days afford an annual tax of £28 10s., and a consumption of fuel exceeding 1,000 gallons for a moderate year's motoring, the Big Six Bentley is available secondhand for extremely low sums. Nevertheless, it is ever an interesting study to the enthusiast, who may even contemplate-limiting his annual mileage and perhaps licensing only for half the year, to enable him to experience the joys of owning a really big-engined aristocrat that invariably carries its age lightly.
Categories: 6½ Litre
The invitation to go out in Forrest Lycett's 8-litre last month, before the famous car is stored for an indefinite period in some warm, safe garage, was accepted with as much keen anticipation as if we had never been in the car before, for motoring of this calibre is quite unique, and particularly so in these disturbed times. The 8-litre is accepted in most circles as the highest-performance road car in existence, and even those who should know it better are heard to express the opinion that it is a very considerably hotted-up version of the Bentley marque.
Categories: 8 litre
Sports Models for 1931: Bentley
Among new models none will cause greater interest at the Show than the 8-litre Bentley, the latest addition to that make's range.
Categories: 8 litre
Sporting Cars on Road & Track: No. 1, The Three Litre Bentley
The sporting car, as a class, has characteristically more distinction than that possessed by touring types. Being essentially out of the ordinary, and representing the result of concentration upon a design intended to emphasise particular motoring qualities, the sporting car usually has quite an individuality of its own. Some sporting cars, of course, are much more conventional than others; whilst there are those which seem to stand quite apart from orthodox standards... In the latter category one may place the three-litre Speed Model Bentley. This car embodies all the qualities which one has come to consider essential in a sporting car. In addition, it has features and characteristics quite its own.
Categories: 3 litre
Trying a Second-Hander: 3-litre Bentley
When a firm starts to make motor cars, and with its first model springs into a position in the automobile world unattained by any of its rivals, there must be something more than usually remarkable about that model. Such was the case of the famous 3-litre Bentley which brought its name to the position of being a household word among motorists, and which has made history both on its own, and on behalf of the motor industry of this country.
Categories: 3 litre
When Peter Clark said "she's rather good, as 'Blue Labels' go" and told us what she has cost him we realised that here was a unique opportunity to discover just what a sound but not abnormal 3-litre Bentley can do. Albeit, in matters of layout and equipment, Peter's car is distinctly individualistic. What she actually represents is a very late series "Blue Label" vintage 1928-29 with the original fabric saloon body replaced by cut-about sports two-seater carriage work...
Categories: 3 litre
In March, 1941, I discovered a 1924 "Speed Model" Bentley (Chassis No. 443) in Poona, but owing to having on the previous day purchased by wire to Delhi a 1935 Lancia "Dilambda" sports tourer, funds did not permit of buying and maintaining a second car. However, in due course No. 443 was purchased by a friend of mine for about £30, and though the bodywork was rough, mechanically the car was in very sound order. Its big snag was the old-type wheels fitted with 820 by 120 tyres for which, search as we might, and did, we were never able to find the much-needed spares. This car was driven to Delhi by two friends, the time taken being two and a half days. I was to have been the third driver for this interesting trip but, unfortunately, was removed to hospital with paratyphoid a few days before we were due to start.
Categories: 3 litre
The general conception of the 3-litre Bentley was forming in the mind of its creator before the end of World War I. W.O.'s idea was to produce a very fast motor-car, on the principle of a racing-car detuned as it were, by building into it enough strength and weight to ensure reliability and durability in the hands of private owners, as pooposed to "hotting-up " an ordinary car to the point where it became unreliable.
Categories: 3 litre
In 1930 Bentley had won the 24-hour race of the l'Automobile Club de l'Ouest three times in succession, but they were making every effort to improve upon this record and to secure their fourth victory. To this end, no fewer than six cars were entered. The works team was three 6 1/2 litre six-cylinder models driven by Barnato-Kidston, Davis-Dun fee and Clement-Watney. Backing them up were three 4 1/2 litre supercharged models then owned by the Hon. Dorothy Paget, which had been built at Sir Henry Birkin's place at Welwyn Garden City. The drivers of these cars were Birkin-Chassagne, Jack Dunfee-J. D. Benjafield and Harcourt Wood-G. Ramponi.
Categories: Racing
Bentleys have been remarkable not only for their fame as a marque but also for the number of individually well-known cars made by the company. Two with outstanding records are shown in these pictures taken by members of "The Motor" photographic staff. Here is Forrest Lycett's remarkable eight-litre competing at Lewes in 1935...
Categories: Racing
Woolf Barnato's Le Mans' Hat Trick
In describing the racing career of Capt. Woolf ("Babe") Barnato, the historian is impeded by the seeming ease with which he brought off his wins. His run of successes was marred by no crash and scarcely an incident, a marked contrast to the previous Bentley deeds at Le Mans between the initial victory in 1924 and the fantastic win by Old No 7 after the White House crash in 1927.
Categories: Racing
Racing, particularly the long-distance variety, is not always solely a matter of driving and making the best of the car's performance. There is always the unexpected mechanical incident, the burst tyre or the minor failure which calls for rapid work and judgment on the part of driver and mechanic. These pictures by The Motor photographers, show some of the "Blower Bentley Boys" tackling such jobs in French sunshine and in British rain.
Categories: Racing
Birkin's Single-seater Bentley
Prominent amongst the few cars, which have really captured the affections of the Brooklands crowd, stands Sir Henry Birkin's great blue single-seater Bentley. Encouraged, no doubt, by the deeds of the supercharged 4 1/2-litre Bentley cars at Le Mans and in Ireland, and inspired by his own traditional role of pacemaker to the opposition, Birkin's obvious choice in his search for a worthy Brooklands mount, able to beat Kaye Don's lap-record of 134.23 m.p.h., was the Blower Bentley.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Empire Reactions to the Sports Car
When the war came along I entered into various negotiations, which finally resulted in my finding myself in Central Canada. Here I found the attitude to the sports car somewhat remarkable and almost amusing. In fairness, I must say that so far as I know there are only two examples on the road in the whole Dominion of Canada of a good type of sports car and interestingly enough, both of these models were built in the same year and had a very similar performance. One is a 1930 Mercedes-Benz; the other a 1930-1931 4 1/2-litre blower Bentley… The latter I was able to acquire at a very moderate price, for despite its good qualities, this type of car has practically no appeal on the American continent. The average American-Canadian buys a car almost completely for its appearance, its height (so that the owner can always look down on others), and the number of extras and gadgets, which it may boast.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Talking of Sports Cars: Blower Bentley
There arrived in the office one grey evening some time last February a young man (relatively speaking) whose chief interest in life for the moment seemed to consist in "genuine" supercharged ex-Dorothy Paget-Birkin blower Bentleys. He was here quite a long while, delving into past volumes of The Autocar for information about these cars of the 1930s. We got chatting after he had finished his research work — he was hot on the trail of two of these machines that I gathered had been offered to him, and his quest was partly concerned with unearthing sufficient data to establish, if possible, that they were genuine "Birkin cars". It wasn't that he doubted the good faith of those who, apparently, had described them as such, but he wanted "gen" first hand from historical record.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
No. 1 Birkin and the Bentley at Pau
Birkin himself described his drive at Pau as "'the last of all the big races in which I had any success with the old green Bentleys and the most enjoyable." Furthermore, he said that it was the most interesting and thrilling race in which he had ever taken part.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Talking of Sports Cars: Supercharged Bentley
A novel angle on a vintage Bentley is given by a Canadian enthusiast's description of how he found a supercharged 4 1/2-litre in the U.S.A. a year or two before the war and thoroughly reconditioned it with the assistance of a number of equally enthusiastic friends. This Canadian, W. K. Johnson, is known to a good many members of the sporting fraternity here. He has been in England for the greater part of the war years, and has been present at most of the enthusiasts' gatherings held at the Rembrandt Hotel.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Correspondence: Mr. Forest Lycett and his Bentley
I am surprised to learn that supercharged Bentleys were competing in 1928, but agree with Mr. Bennett that, generally speaking, large and especially heavy cars are relatively slow over road circuits. In this connection the 8-litre Bentley's Shelsley time of 44.08 secs. may be dismissed as a "potted" effort on the part of car and driver which could not be sustained throughout the length of a race… Whether or not the manufacturers regarded the 8-litre Bentley as fast a road car as the supercharged 4 1/2-litre is an inside secret. Personally, in view of its 12-ft. wheelbase, I would say they did not, but the point is immaterial, for the 8-litre was not in production at the time of the events mentioned. Indeed, it did not make its debut until after Bentleys' officially announced retirement from racing. (F. Lycett)
Categories: All models
Recollections of Life as a "Hand" With the Old Company — the Height of Youthful Ambition Attained by an Enthusiast — "Upon leaving school I entered the works of Bentley Motors, Ltd., at Cricklewood — but that bare statement of the beginning of a career in the motor trade hardly does justice to my feelings at the time. The very name Bentley meant more to me than any other name in the world; for years I had followed the fortunes of the marque and had studied the specifications of the cars (when I should have studied other and duller subjects!), and my enthusiasm was such that I was even known to my schoolfellows by the nickname of "Bentley"."
Categories: All models
Old-type Bentleys That Sold New Long After Demise of Original Company
Your contributor "Vizor" is certainly in error in doubting whether Bentley Motors (1931), Ltd., have ever put modern bodies on the old-type 4 1/2 litre chassis, as he will soon realise if he consults any issue of your excellent journal for any week of 1936. Some time after the new company was formed several 3- and 4 1/2-litre chassis were completely reconditioned and fitted with new bodies, and later still complete cars were built up from the very large quantity of spares then in existence.
Categories: All models
Amongst vintage cars, the Bentley has ever inspired enthusiasm in its owners and respect in those not so fortunate. Quite a good trade was done up to the war in rebuilding these fine old machines, clothing them in new bodywork and tuning them up to give more than their pristine performance... Although many are still running in their original form, and others have already been rebuilt by enthusiasts either for ordinary touring or for competition work, many may still be picked up fairly cheaply in breakers' yards by those lucky enough to find them. Both those already running old-school Bentleys and the people seeking chassis to rebuild may find these detailed notes on overhauling them of some service.
Categories: All models
Milestones of Speed: The 1930 Supercharged 4.5-litre Bentley
This model of 4 1/2 litre Bentley (1930) ran only once in Grand Prix racing, but on this solitary appearance in the French Grand Prix of 1930 Sir H. R. S. Birkin achieved second place, and although beaten by a 2-litre Type 35 Bugatti, he, in turn, beat a large number of similar models. There is, therefore, every justification for including the Bentley in these articles as one of the links in the chain of motor-racing history.
Categories: All models
The Olympia Show: The 4½-litre and the 6½-litre
Considerable interest is naturally centred upon the supercharged 4 1/2-litre car which makes its first appearance at this Show, though it has already behind it a remarkable history in the competition world... After its introduction last year the 6 1/2-litre six-cylinder speed model appears in revised form. It is the type of car, which won the Le Mans 24-hour Race this year...
Categories: All models
It was a coincidence I could not help remarking that a year to the day from meeting Mr. Forrest Lycett and sampling his 8-litre Bentley, I met him again and saw and briefly tried his almost equally well-known 41/2-litre; it had so happened that we had not met in the meantime. The invitation to renew acquaintance with the 4 1/2 — "renew" because, of course, it is a car one has seen competing — was of some standing. That machine had stood in London since September 1939, and was indeed fortunate to have come unscathed through last winter.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Appeal of the 4½ Litre Bentley
The present Bentley description deals with a 4 1/2-litre owned by J. Northway, at Bristol. He still has the car, up on blocks for the rest of the war. As usual, modifications have been made, the engine having been expertly rebuilt not long before the war, and fitted with special pistons, plus tuning. It seems to have had as a result useful extra performance over an ordinary 4 1/2. The production car, nicely run-in, was good for about 92 m.p.h., but this example, the owner tells us, could get within sight of the 100 on a recalibrated speedometer. Again as usual, he would like to know more than he does at present of its past history.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: Speed Six
The notes upon this car that follow are not in the more usual form from an actual owner, he being a person unknown at the moment. They come from A. F. Rivers Fletcher, who, as he described in an article published some time ago in The Autocar, was with the old Bentley firm during the racing era. He was fortunate enough to encounter the Speed Six which that redoubtable pair of "Bentley Boys", Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston, drove to victory in the 1930 Le Mans 24-hour race.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: F. Lycett
Writing recently upon that evergreen topic, old-type Bentleys. Mr. P. Willcox invited my opinion of the Speed Six vis-a-vis the 8-litre. Frankly, the former struck me always as a fortuitously successful improvisation, coming as it did of tainted stock — the standard 6 1/2 litre. Weak frames and cross-members, coupled with harsh suspension, huge wheels, and a high centre of gravity, rendered fast wet-road driving and braking an adventure.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: Woolf Barnato
The car was built in 1929 and first raced in the Double-Twelve of that year, Dudley Benjafield and myself driving. After three hours, when well in the lead, we had the misfortune to break the dynamo coupling. It was impossible to repair the coupling at the pits, so the dynamo was removed and put in the back of the car and we went on, soon regaining the lead. The stewards, however, after due deliberation decided we were contravening the rules of running without the dynamo working and in position and compelled us to retire.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Just about two years ago I had a motoring experience, which really merited that oft-misused word "unforgettable." I joined Forrest Lycett for a Brooklands test of his 8-litre Bentley, a car known, I suppose, to every enthusiast who is familiar with English speed trials and hill-climbs. During the course of the afternoon, times were recorded which had never been equalled by any other car which The Motor has road-tested.
Categories: 8 litre
In immediate succession to last week's 30-98 Vauxhall, I am able to present the promised 3-litre Bentley — counterpart, contemporary, rival, call it what you will; These two descriptions have been on my mind for some time, and next, having been able to give them their share of attention, I will endeavour to cater in turn for those whose/idea of a sports car does not run to machines that have four whopping great cylinders, and are anything up to seventeen or eighteen years old into the bargain. Though what a tribute to their design and construction that latter remark is — and they're British, too!
Categories: 3 litre
Admittedly a car of appeal to the brand of motorist labelled as the enthusiast, it is doubtful whether any single model of any other make has been the subject of more discussion and adulation than the 3-litre Bentley. It was designed immediately after the end of the last war, and first produced twenty-one years ago. Manufacture of this particular model ceased well over ten years ago, yet still there is ample evidence that it is sought after because it can give something highly individual to the keen owner whose natural inclination is towards a sports car, and because of its astonishing durability.
Categories: 3 litre
Blown 4½-litre Bentley Fitted with 3-litre Engine
Having for many years been a Bentley enthusiast, I follow with great interest the controversies arising from time to time in The Autocar regarding these noble cars. I think I recently observed some sacrilegious suggestions that the bodywork of the old-time Bentleys should be modernised for the post-war period... As a hitherto silent observer 1 must now protest — the bodywork is surely as indispensable as the renowned exhaust note, and is part and parcel of what makes a Bentley a Bentley.
Categories: 3 litre
No. One 3-litre Bentley — An Echo of the Early Twenties
I have been a regular reader of your journal for many years, and have recently enjoyed the numerous but always interesting references to the grand old Bentleys… May I be forgiven if I feel some pride in at one time possessing what I believe was the No. One 3-litre? I purchased this car second-hand in 1922, or early '23 from Mr. F. G. Clement, who was at the time a member of Gaffikin and Wilkinson, of Dover Street. W. Fortunately I still have a photograph of the car.
Categories: 3 litre
Talking of Sports Cars: Restoration — 1927 3-litre Bentley
The article is about the results of nearly a year of spare-time work on a 1927 3-litre Bentley... It's three or four months since an old-type Bentley was featured in this series, and that was a 4 1/2, and no doubt something more about a 3-litre will be looked for, at any rate welcomed. As it happens, I feel a personal interest beyond the ordinary in the sample of 3-litre now described, for, as the present owner mentions, it was through a reference to the car in "The Sport" nearly a year ago that it changed hands. The previous owner was Donald McCullough...
Categories: 3 litre
Here is what J.G. Fry says about the 3-4 1/2 litre hybrid: "Recipe: take a good 3-litre Red Label Bentley chassis, mix in a good 4 1/2 litre engine gear box, and transmission and add a light two-seater body with accessories to taste. The result is a motorcar, which while still retaining a good vintage flavour, possesses a performance equalled by few other machines even of the most modern and expensive type..."
Categories: 3 litre
Talking of Sports Cars: That 3-litre Again
The immediate subject is 3-litre Bentley, and it is introduced on this occasion by A. F. Rivers Fletcher, who at one time was with the original Bentley Company. He writes of a late example of 3-litre belonging to a disabled enthusiast, Brian Ashworth...
Categories: 3 litre
In Their Day: The Three-litre Bentley
The great prestige still enjoyed by the 3-litre Bentley today regarded as typical of the Vintage sports car, makes one forget that when first introduced at the Olympia Show of 1919 it was, in fact, a production-model racing car laid out on full Grand Prix lines...
Categories: 3 litre
Talking of Sports Cars: 3-litre Bentley
For Bentley enthusiast R.G. Baillie, the acquisition of a 3-litre became a dream of his from the moment when he first saw the Bentley at the 1921 Motor Show, but it was many years before that dream was realised. As a matter of interest, the Bentley was originally shown at Olympia, in 1919, the first Motor Show after the 1918 Armistice. It appeared then as a chassis only, but in 1920 a complete car was on view, in the White City section of the Show, with an all-weather body, forming the only exhibit on the stand.
Categories: 3 litre
The Six-cylinder 6½ Litre Bentley
Ever since its introduction shortly after the war the three-litre four-cylinder Bentley has enjoyed an exceedingly good name for performance, durability and all-round road-worthiness, so that it is not surprising that a quite unusual amount of interest was shown when a six-cylinder 6½ litre model appeared at Olympia last October. The "Big" Bentley, as it has come to be known, is designed on lines which, while advanced and original in many ways, are essentially sound and cannot by any stretch of imagination be called freakish.
Categories: 6½ Litre
8-Litre Bentley Engine / Chassis at 1930 Olympia Motor Show - I
The 8-litre Bentley has the largest engine of any British car.
Categories: 8 litre
8-Litre Bentley Engine / Chassis at 1930 Olympia Motor Show - II
To be prominent amongst the large cars at Olympia: the new 8-litre Bentley. The engine is a fine six-cylinder unit with an overhead camshaft. A feature of the transmission is a novel, silent four-forward gearbox.
Categories: 8 litre
Care and Maintenance of the 3-Litre Bentley - Part I
Before discussing the adjustment of the components of the three-litre Bentley chassis, it is as well to mention that the manufacturers maintain an admirably organised service depot to relieve owners of Bentley cars from the need to effect anything more than the ordinary small adjustments of every day running. It may be argued that the owner of a car in, say, the north of England could not benefit from a depot near Hendon, N.W., and the answer to this is that the depot will come to him, as a member of the staff with the necessary tools and spares is often sent long distances immediately on receipt of a call for assistance.
Categories: 3 litre
Care and Maintenance of the 3-Litre Bentley - Part II
A special Bentley-Smith carburetter for the standard cars, differing in many respects from the ordinary Smith, is used. In this the control to make starting easier in cold weather and also admit extra air does not block up two of the choke tubes as is usual, but raises a sleeve, entirely cutting off the air from the slow-running jet. To start, therefore, it is important to close the hand throttle completely and then cut off the air for the slow-running jet. When the engine has started the control must, of course, be returned to normal position; the extra air, on the other hand, should not be kept open the whole time if the car is on full throttle and maximum power is required.
Categories: 3 litre
Beautiful workmanship, magnificent driving and, above all, the most minute preparation enabled the Bentley team to pull off the double victory. For this year, not content with covering the biggest distance in the 4 hours, a Bentley also won the final of the race on a cylinder-capacity handicap basis. Moreover, on the score of distance, three other Bentleys were respectively second, third and fourth, and they finished together, crossing the finishing line like a squadron of battleships in "line-ahead."
Categories: Racing
Many times in the long and thrilling history of motor racing a great triumph has been marred by a great tragedy. The magnificent success of the British cars in the Junior Car Club's Double-Twelve Hour Race at Brooklands last Friday and Saturday was offset by a deplorable accident in which a competitor and a spectator lost their lives and many other people were more or less seriously injured.
Categories: Racing
This year the race took on an entirely fresh character. So far Bentleys have had it all their own way for a number of years. The result was that few foreign makes could be persuaded to race against them, and a sort of inferiority complex germinated in the minds of the French, although the race was held in their country. "Why enter," they would ask, "when Bentleys are sure to win? They are unbeatable on the Sarthe circuit!"
Categories: Racing
Le Mans this year provided more thrills than it has ever done in the past. Indeed, I am not sure that it was not the most exciting race of any kind to be held for at least five years… The bonnet was never lifted, throughout the race, on No. 4, the winning Bentley — a wonderful testimony to the engine's reliability.
Categories: Racing
The Supercharged 4½-litre Bentley
The recipe is as follows: Take a sturdy chassis, install an engine rated at 25 h.p., add a supercharger, fit an open body, wings and windscreen, and make the complete vehicle have a speed range of from 9 m.p.h. to 103 m.p.h. on top gear. Do all these things and you will have arrived about half-way towards the achievement which the 4½ litre Bentley represents. Only half-way, because you have yet to make your car its equal as regards other important attributes, such as road-holding, gear-changing, steering and braking...
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
"The Autocar" Road Tests (4½-litre Supercharged)
A great deal is expected of any Bentley, simply and wholly because of the name and because of the manner in which that name has been gained. But it is interesting for a moment, in dealing with the supercharged 4½ litre, to regard the car from an angle quite apart from the speed, and see what its advantages are in other directions.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Used Cars on the Road - Supercharged 4½-litre Litre Bentley Four-seater
A car such as the supercharged Bentley is a distinctly unusual subject for a used-car test, but this model was suggested by H. M. Bentley and Partners, 3 Hanover Court, London, who specialise in this make, for they have confidence in what is generallv termed the blower car… Clearly, it was a machine, which would appeal only to a certain limited type of owner, and the car must be approached from that angle, which to some extent is bound to shape one's judgment of it.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
Bentley Programme Includes a Supercharged Chassis
In view of their successes in sporting events during the current year it is not really surprising that Bentley Motors, Ltd., should have decided that but few changes are necessary for 1930 in their 4½ litre and "Big Six" chassis. The previous range is, however, to be extended by marketing the supercharged 4½ litre chassis of the type used by Capt. Birkin in the Double Twelve-hour event at Brooklands and at the Dublin and Belfast races. The chassis price of this model has been fixed at £1,475.
Categories: All models
The Bentley coupe is of Weymnnn construction, with thick fabric or tole souple for the main panelling and aluminium for the scuttle and top of the tall. The upper side and back panelling consists of a foundation of perforated steel secured at the edges by a special moulding, which grips the steel and, at the same time, allows it to lie flush with the surrounding wooden framework. This steel panelling is non-drumming, it gives strength without undue weight and ensures the preservation of the dome-shaped contours of the back corners of the roof. The steel is padded before the outer covering is stretched on, which is effected by means of a single lengthwise seam at each side. The dummy outside joints are hand-forged.
Categories: All models
On the Bentley stand the centre of interest is obviously the new 8-litre six-cylinder, the biggest British car and the latest design of a firm which, more than any other, has carried the British colours to success in open and international competition.
Categories: All models
While the 4½ litre Bentley is of the sports class, it is tractable and quiet; in acceleration it fulfils the driver's wishes at once… The engine is like that of the former 3-litre model. There are four cylinders and each has four valves. Thus the seating area is increased by half and the cooling surface is greater, while the hammering effect is reduced by two valves with lighter springs than could be used were the valves single. The camshaft is overhead and is driven vertically with adjustment for the gear-mesh. The lubrication is forced, except to the pistons and gudgeon pins, which are oiled by splash.
Categories: 4½ Litre
Used Cars on the Road - 4½-litre Bentley Saloon
After nearly four years, and probably hard years at that, the "4½ litre" Bentley which is the subject of this report had lost none of the marque's very real personality, and power developed by the four-cylinder engine, combined with the general feeling of sturdiness, seemed to give the car complete and easy mastery over other machines met with in a run.
Categories: 4½ Litre
The 6-cylinder 6½ litre Bentley is a fast but refined top-speed car and has been designed to meet the demand for a chassis that shall be quiet, flexible, and capable of high speeds over long distances… The machine submitted for test was a five-seater tourer, with a wheelbase of 12ft. 7 1/4in., and weighed, without load, 2 tons 5 cwt. The greatest interest lies in the engine, and especially the valve mechanism and its drive, and also in the vehicle's running.
Categories: 4 Litre
When a concern of the standing of Bentley Motors, Ltd., produces a new model, it is something of an event. It is, moreover, an event which indirectly interests all motorists, for although the new chassis falls in a price class which is primarily of direct interest to comparatively only a few, nevertheless it embodies all that is latest in design, all is modern in construction, and, as such, it introduces features which may be widely followed in later years, even on quantity-production cars selling at a tenth of the price.
Categories: 4 Litre
A Completely New Six Cylinder Bentley
As was first announced in The Motor last Tuesday, the eagerly awaited six-cylinder Bentley chassis of medium rating made its debut towards the end of last week, and is now available at a price of £1,225. This entirely new chassis is a joy to behold, so excellent is its design and so fine the workmanship which it displays. Few cars of this calibre are being built nowadays.
Categories: 4 Litre
Talking of Sports Cars: 4-litre Bentley
It is interesting to have the 4-litre Bentley recalled by a reader who served his apprenticeship with and was employed by the "old" Bentley Company. Possibly many enthusiasts have gotten that there ever was such a model. It appeared in the spring of the very year (1931) in which the original firm went out of business, that is, just before the acquisition of the name by Rolls-Royce. Thus the 4-litre was short lived as a model; in fact, it scarcely passed the experimental stage, and even appeared to have been put on the market prematurely. The design shared certain features of that great car, in every sense of the word, the 8-litre.
Categories: 4 Litre
For some weeks rumour has been busy with the name Bentley in connection with a new chassis. We are now able to give the first details and illustration of this 1931 model in the following preliminary announcement. A more extensive description will appear in a later issue of The Motor… In designing the new chassis the aim of the Bentley engineers has been to secure an exceptional degree of refinement, silence and comfort.
Categories: 8 litre
The word "unique" is sadly overworked; so much so that people have fallen into the error of coupling it with qualifications such as "very" or "almost." The dictionary definition is as follows: "single in its kind of excellence." In this sense and without qualification the new 8-litre Bentley is a unique car… The top-gear speed range of which this car is capable with closed coachwork is in itself very unusual, the figures being a minimum of 6 m.p.h. and a maximum of 104 m.p.h. Additionally, the car runs very quietly, is docile and flexible in traffic, holds the road admirably and Is possessed of exceedingly good brakes.
Categories: 8 litre
"The Autocar" Road Tests (8 Litre)
At the time of the Olympia Show the 8-litre Bentley was introduced in such a way as to stress to the full the fact that it was designed to be that rather mysterious type of vehicle which is generally known as a town carriage; and undoubtedly a great many people who listened to that announcement went away under the impression that performance was the very last thing on which the car based its claim to consideration — so much so that certain people undoubtedly believed that the performance was sacrificed to obtain other possibilities.
Categories: 8 litre
This car was bought new in 1931 as a chassis but the parts were mainly machined in 1930, so it is now some thirty years of age. Fitted with a two-seater body it was used in the beginning for long-distance Continental touring but, from the mid-thirties onwards, when the owner was already over 50, it began to play an increasingly prominent part in the many short sprints which were a strong feature of most competitions at that time. Fired with the desire to excel, Lycett had many modifications made by the late McKenzie and eventually the complete car weighed less than the original chassis; engine output had been raised by over a third, and braking and general road holding considerably improved.
Categories: 8 litre
Considering this car has seen three and a half years of service, and that the speedometer recorded more than 30,000 miles, the mechanical condition of the machine was a tribute to Bentley workmanship. The rear wheel, when jacked up, had as little as 1 1/4in. of travel at the tyre, with the gear lever in first, while at the front axle no wear at all could be detected. The wheel bearings had no shake, nor was there any perceptible play in the steering connections.
Categories: 3 litre
A Real Test of an Oil-Engined Car
Two things stick in my mind about the 1933 Monte Carlo Rally — the complete lack of trouble during the run and the intense cold… From my point of view, I can truthfully say that never have I done a more peaceful competition in any vehicle… It may be of interest to give a few details of the machine. The engine… was fitted into a 1925 long chassis 3-litre Bentley. The body was the same age — a fabric Freestone and Webb saloon.
Categories: 3 litre
Some cars are in a class apart. To own them is a sheer joy, available, alas! to only a limited few whose pockets are deep enough. The performance that they give varies according to the type of machine. It is said that money can buy anything. In the car world it can buy superlative performance, or sheer luxury, or a combination of the two.
Categories: 3 litre
Used Cars on the Road - 3-litre Bentley Four-seater
A Bentley for 55 guineas. There is quite obviously a whole story in that for the enthusiast interested in this type of car. This 1923 3-litre short-chassis Bentley is the oldest car yet taken out, and has the highest mileage to its credit, yet the mechanical condition was a wonderful tribute to the workmanship and materials.
Categories: 3 litre
Bentley Wins 24-hour Race at Le Mans
With a thrilling roar and the clash of Bendix pinions 41 self-starters come to use, and 40 engines spring to life. All, that is, with the exception of poor Montier's wonderfully speeded-up Ford, which splutters and bangs and will not start until half a dozen depressions of the starter button, when he rushes gamely off in the rear of the procession... Duff on the other hand, pulls his hood, secures in like lightning to the screen pillars and roars off in a babel of warm-heated applause...
Categories: Racing
The 24-hour race for the Rudge-WhitWorth Cup took place at Le Mans in the Department of the Sarthe, France. It began at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 18th, and finished at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 19th. The cars, which were of touring type, were required to average certain performances according to their engine capacity, the vehicle having covered the greatest excess mileage being acclaimed the winner. The distance round the course was 10.7 miles. The first 20 circuits had to be made with the hoods erected, and only the electric starter was allowed to be used for starting the engines.
Categories: Racing
The 24-hour race for the Rudge-Whitworth Cups look place at Le Mans, in the Department of the Sarthe, France. It began at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 16th, and finished at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 17th. The cars, which were of touring type, were, with slight alterations, production models, and were required to average a certain performance according to their engine capacity. The vehicle which covered the greatest excess mileage was the winner, although a cup was also given for the greatest distance covered in the 24 hours. The distance round the course was 10.7 miles.
Categories: Racing
The Race Described Hour By Hour
A little while ago all Europe and all America were talking of the Hispano-Stutz duel which took place recently at Indianapolis. There was talk then of a Bentley entering the lists against these two redoubtable foreign marques. The chance came last Saturday for the Bentley...
Categories: Racing
It is additionally interesting that so big a machine as the 44-litre Bentley, already capable of a high performance, should be provided with even more performance by supercharging. It is obvious, of course, that the demand for these cars lies at present more in the sports world than with the average motorist, which is not to say that future experiments will not disclose the value of the supercharger in some form or another for the needs of everyday motorists. It is no secret that experiments have been carried out for a very long time with 4½ litre Bentleys and a supercharger, and it is no new and untested machine, therefore, which is taking its place in the range of models.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
A Fine Body on a Bentley Chassis
A particularly fine example of the British coachbuilder's art is the beautiful ivory and black fixed cabriolet de ville which is being shown at the Paris Salon by Thrupp and Maberly, Ltd… It has many unique features, a new note being struck by the front wings and undershields which are not only made in one piece, but are so constructed that the automatic side lamps actually form part of the wings, while the undershield, which curves from under the doors to a point well beneath the car, is provided with numerous louvres which do much to improve the appearance of this part of the car. The wings, incidentally, are of the new ribbed type, which are exceedingly attractive.
Categories: All models
The 4½ Litre Bentley Sports Four-Seater
To convey in words the precise charm of the 4½ litre Bentley without using an unconvincing wealth of superlatives is a difficult matter; it is a car which must be driven to be appreciated. The way in which it endears itself to the driver after a few hundred miles on the road is due to many remarkable attributes, such as a rocket-like acceleration, a well-nigh perfect driving position, excellent brakes, delightful steering and road-holding extraordinary.
Categories: 4½ Litre
The four-cylinder three-litre was built primarily as a sports model. In course of time it has attained a considerable vogue as a fast and reliable touring car with an almost endless life, the original sports model being retained as a separate type of chassis, and it will interest all owners and prospective owners of the three-litre models to know that this chassis will be continued absolutely unaltered, and is not in any way superseded by the new six-cylinder.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Far from being competitive with the famous four-cylinder 3-litre Bentley, the new chassis is intended to carry full-size coachwork and is a high-powered job with a six-cylinder engjne of about 6 1/2 litres capacity. While the design is entirely new in one sense, in general principles it follows the lines, which have been found so successful in the case of the 3-litre model.
Categories: 6½ Litre
The Nawab of Bhopal's Game Hunting Car
For real originality in bodywork design and lavish equipment one generally has to turn to British cars supplied to special order of Indian potentates, the latest example being a six-cylinder sports Bentley supplied to His Highness the Prince Hamidullah Khan, the reigning Nawab of Bhopal and son of the Begum of Bhopal, who recently abdicated in his favour… The chassis is a production model, with a body specially built by Thrupp and Maberly, Ltd., to His Highness's special requirements, being designed primarily for game hunting. It accommodates four persons in all; the front seats are adjustable and the accommodation at the rear consists of a double-seated dickey, with ample legroom, while the passengers are protected by a screen and apron. Both front and rear screens are so designed that they can almost instantly be lowered so as to fall flat, thus allowing the personnel complete freedom in the use of guns.
Categories: 6½ Litre
The word "unique" is one, which is much abused but can justly be applied to the 6½ litre Bentley speed model, which we have recently tested at Brooklands and on the road. This exceptional car, in addition to being capable of a maximum speed of 90 m.p.h. with a full-sized saloon body, has such a flexible and silent performance on its top-gear ratio of 3½ to 1 that only its instant and exhilarating response to the accelerator pedal gives an inkling of its speed capabilities when it is being driven on crowded roads where a moderate rate of travel is enforced.
Categories: 6½ Litre
A British super-efficient sporting car, the engine of which is designed to keep its "tune" in the hands of the average owner. The chassis stands alone in its class as a car designed to give that peculiar and almost perfect combination of tractabilitv and great speed usually to be found on machines built for racing and for racing only. Essentially a light chassis with a very powerful engine, the car is nevertheless suitable for the average motorist who has not the time to maintain an engine in perfect tune, the whole point of the design being that the engine will do its work easily without the need of constant attention to tappet clearance or other minor adjustments. True, in the hands of the motoring enthusiast who has mechanical ability and is able to obtain the last ounce of power from the engine, the car should well repay attention and care spent upon it, but the great majority prefer a car which will do its work year in and year out without trouble, and for such is the Bentley designed.
Categories: 3 litre
A Test of a Three Litre Bentley
Although frowned upon by the authorities, limited by law, and penalised when discovered, speed is the greatest attribute of a car, and from the car alone is it possible to realise to the full that peculiar feeling of greatness, soaring almost to poetic heights, consequent on high speed travelling. There are, however, certain private roads in our own country, and nearly all the national highways of fair France, on which a racing machine and an open throttle are not only allowed, but encouraged, to the great joy and thankfulness of those drivers who know really where the true pleasure of motoring exists.
Categories: 3 litre
Since the announcement in The Autocar of May 17th, 1919, that a Bentley car was to be produced, over two years have rolled by. Motorists to whom the chassis appealed especially have been wondering what was happening, why no cars succeeded the original experimental chassis, and, little by little, the rumour grew that the Bentley never would be a production job... Within a few weeks, the first car is to leave the works in the hands of its owner, and there will follow a steady output of five cars a week, the price per chassis being £1,050. These facts alone are the firm's answer to its critics, but one may be forgiven for dwelling a little on the difficulties which have had lo be overcome during the past in order to reach the production stage of this attractive sporting chassis.
Categories: 3 litre
The Bentley car illustrated is equipped with a particularly fine example of the coachbuilder's art. The body, which has been specially built by Charlesworth Bodies. Ltd., of Coventry, is designed to provide the most ample leg-room for a long-legged driver and to combine this feature with the provision of a dickey seat in which leg-room is also an important consideration.
Categories: 3 litre
Testing the Three-litre Bentley
If ever there was a paradox on four wheels it is the three-litre Bentley. Originally designed and subsequently described quite rightly as a sporting model, it has all the characteristics of that type of car, yet the effect of a trial run is to make one wonder what exactly is the definition of a sporting car… Many years ago a car which travelled only with difficulty at under 30 m.p.h. on top gear, which was the proud possessor of an inordinately flat spot in the lower part of the carburetter range, which was exceptionally noisy and rather difficult to handle, was considered, fitted with a light and speedy looking body, to offer every possibility which the word sport might imply.
Categories: 3 litre
As already announced in the Autocar of April 22nd, a three-litre Bentley car is to compete in the 500 Miles Race at Indianapolis on May 30th… The Bentley is one of the few cars, which can be converted into a racing car by altering only a few parts, such as gear ratio, carburetter, and compression. An interesting regulation for this race is that the two-litre cars may have single-seater bodies, whereas the three-litre machines must carry two. This is a considerable advantage for the smaller cars.
Categories: 3 litre
Perhaps the best way of summing up the performance of the three-litre Bentley is to say that it gives one the impression of being two cars in one. Fully to appreciate its capabilities one ought first to be a passenger in it when being handled by a stolid, "family" type of driver, and afterwards by one of those bright-eyed, alert, snatch-change Italians who normally despise anything but a real racing car… For the three-litre Bentley is truly a vehicle that gives one seriously to think.
Categories: 3 litre
There is probably no car coming under the category of a real postwar production that has built up for itself a finer reputation than that possessed by the three-lilre Bentley today. The success of this car at Indianapolis, its performance in the Tourist Trophy Race, and the way in which a standard four-seater, driven by Capt. G, F. Duff, broke the double-twelve-hour record at Brooklands at over 85 m.p.h. average speed, are fitting counterparts to the success that has been achieved by this car in the hands of owner-drivers.
Categories: 3 litre
The New T.T. Model Bentley on the Road
When the three-litre Bentley was first put on the British market, some three years ago, its sponsors stated that the car had been designed as a sports model, capable of good performances on the road. In its layout were incorporated several features that were the.outcome of experience gained in building high-efficiency aeroplane engines, and the way in which this car has gained considerable popularity among motorists of all classes has given the lie direct to those who considered that an engine incorporating such features as four valves per cylinder, dual magneto ignition, and other features usually connected with racing types pur et simple, would not be successful.
Categories: 3 litre
Bentley Front-wheel Brakes Standardized
Bentley Motors Ltd., decided not to supply front wheel brakes of any kind with their chassis until they were satisfied that they had produced an absolutely fool-proof system. Realizing the danger involved by fitting types of an unperfected character, this concern has spent a great deal of time and money in producing a system that is (a) perfectly safe in the hands of the ordinary driver at the wheel of a fast car; and (b) long-lived and easy to adjust.
Categories: 3 litre
John Duff's 3-litre Bentley, driven by the owner and by F. C. Clement, won the 24 hours race for the Rudge-Whitworth Cup, at Le Mans, last Sunday afternoon. Officially covering 1,290 3/4 miles, this average equalled 53 3/4 miles an hour. In reality, the British car went at least one hundred miles further, but, under the complicated rules, which competitors and officials alike admitted they could not understand, Duff got no credit for his last 90 minutes' running, although during this time he was driving hard under the impression that he was in danger of losing the race.
Categories: 3 litre
Few things are more interesting than the gradual development of a car, and few cars have developed in a more interesting manner than has the three-litre Bentley… Originally, this car was the sporting car par excellence; a machine built to give a high performance and designed to be handled by the enthusiast from whom skilful driving might be expected. The car has been available to motorists for, relatively, a few years. During that time it has established a very high reputation, and at the same lime development has resulted in a transformation of the machine from the sporting car to what can be termed in comparison a genuine touring car. True, the sports or short chassis has an even higher performance than hitherto, but its manufacture forms a small proportion of the total energy devoted to Bentley cars, and the main production is centred in the long, or touring, chassis.
Categories: 3 litre
The Three-litre Bentley Speed Model
The three-litre Bentley chassis has the distinction of having won its way in a remarkably short period of time, being first produced so recently as 1921. This has largely been due to its successes in various sporting events, culminating in the winning of the Rudge-Whitworth Cup in the Grand Prix d'Endurance in Juno last year. For some time there have been two types of three-litre chassis produced, known as the " Long-wheelbase Model " and the "Short-wheelbase Speed Model " respectively; it is the latter which we were recently able to test on the road.
Categories: 3 litre
...Upon examining the car, one is struck by the comfort and roominess of the bodywork, which has been attained on a chassis of short wheelhase. The body sides are high, affording adequate protection, and both front and rear seats are of comfortable shape and dimensions. In order to increase the body space, the steering column has been shortened to the extent of 3 ins., and is less steeply raked than in other 3-litre Bentley models; consequently, it has been found possible to shorten the scuttle and move the dash farther forward. The body does not overhang at the back, and the whole car has a well balanced and pleasing appearance set off by the handsome lines of the well-known Bentley radiator and tapering bonnet.
Categories: 3 litre
The much-disputed record for the 24 hours is once again held by a British car. Capt. John F. Duff, driving his privately owned 15.9 h.p. three-litre Bentley succeeded in covering no less than 2,280.69 miles in the 24 hours at Montlhery track… Some idea of his terrific feat may be gathered when it is recalled that in the course of a day and a night he has covered a distance almost equivalent to six times the journey from London to Edinburgh. His average speed for the entire distance was 95.026 m.p.h., eight miles an hour faster than the average of Garfield and Plessier, driving the big six-cylinder 45 h.p. Renault.
Categories: 3 litre
The Three-litre Bentley Speed Model
With a performance to satisfy the most critical speedman, coupled with a degree of flexibility unusual in a sports car, the 1926 three-litre speed model Bentley shows a distinct improvement over the very fine sports automobiles that have hitherto left the Cricklewood works. Not only is the new car faster by some 10 m.p.h. than the 1925 type, but acceleration has been improved, while the brakes are still more efficient than of yore.
Categories: 3 litre
Is this the fastest Sports Car?
The query as to which is the fastest sports car in the world, using as a definition a model which can be run in. say, the T.T. or the Le Mans races, and yet prove tractable in daily use, opens up an interesting topic for debate. There are many Continental cars which could lay claim to the honour, and at least one of them, shown at Earls Court, was reputed to have a maximum speed of 140 m.p.h… We have, of course, no British car in production which will approach this speed but, on the basis of a measured performance both at Brooklands and in numerous speed trials, we have one vehicle which seems capable of worthily upholding our honour. It is something of a solemn thought to realise that it is an eight-year-old design. We refer, of course, to Mr. Forrest Lycett's famous 8-litre sports Bentley.
Categories: 8 litre
100 m.p.h. on a Five-Year-Old Car
A few great cars of the past stand right out in the thoughts of the enthusiast. One of these is certainly the 8-litre Bentley, which was built specifically to give a very high performance, and at the same time to be quiet and docile. It is of tremendous interest to anyone so minded to discover the condition today of such a car, and the opportunity arose through the Service Department, Bentley Motors (1931). Ltd., Kingsbury Works. Kingsbury Road, Hendon, London. N.W.9, which offers a selection of reconditioned second-hand Bentley cars for sale, including the old types.
Categories: 8 litre
Dream to Reality — 3 Litre Bentley
According to legend the Goodman Bentley was conceived about 200 metres from the summit of Danseys Pass-a remote and little used short cut to Central Otago from the north — on Saturday, June 4th, 1960. The South Canterbury Branch's Queen's Birthday Tour was en route to an overnight stop at Alexandra and the Goodman lads, Brian, then aged 20 and Barry, aged 17 struggled up the long winding pass in their Model T Tudor, they each having to put a foot hard down on the low gear pedal. Suddenly with the blare of a horn and a shower of shingle Don Oddie bellowed past in his 4 1/2 litre Bentley, and as he disappeared over the summit Barry was heard to mutter "One day I will own a car like that!"
Categories: 3 litre
The Restoration of a 1925 3-Litre Bentley
…The route took us over Danseys Pass and whilst making our slow and labourious way up (with both feet pushed hard onto the low gear pedal) we were passed by Don Oddie in his early 4 1/2 Bentley. That did it. Barry swore that one day he would have a car like that. I also agreed that it was very nice but later bought a small continental vintage car and thought that that was the end of my plans to one day own a Bentley. The 3-litre story really starts after the 1st Bentley Alpine rally when Barry arrived home and stated that he intended to build up a 3-litre…
Categories: 3 litre
Meticulous care ensures that a decades-old car will last for decades to come. When caring for their vehicles, however, collector car owners face a very unique set of circumstances, and one of the questions every adoring owner asks is, "What oil should I put into my engine?
Categories: All models
There's nothing quite like reading the auction results to deflate your hopes of ever owning that collector car you've always longed for and thought that maybe, somehow, if you leveraged yourself to the brink of insolvency, you might just be able to afford someday. Take the Bentley 4½ Liter, for example. If you were watching the Gooding & Co. auction in Monterey last August, you saw a 1931 4½ Liter supercharged roadster sell for a jaw-dropping...
Categories: 4½ Litre
Vintage Bentley Tour of South Africa 2007
Twenty-seven vintage Bentley cars — none newer than 1931 — particpated in the recently concluded 'Vintage Bentley Tour of South Africa 2007'. Read Kurt Furger's diary notes...
Categories: Racing
Vintage Bentley cars at the Peking-to-Paris Rally 2007
Fourteen Vintage Bentley cars participated in the 2007 Peking-to-Paris Rally, which began in Peking on May 27, 2007, and ended on June 30th. The race is a reenactment of the original "great race" of 1907, the first transcontinental motor rally.
Categories: Racing
Vintage Bentleys Celebrate Brooklands Track Centenary
On June 15th 2007, as the Brooklands track celebrated its centenary, the most famous of the vintage Bentley racing cars were reunited at the circuit for the first time in the company of the very latest Bentley Brooklands coupe. Bentley's proud sporting pedigree, forged by the exploits of the immortal Bentley Boys on this famous racetrack in the 1920s and 30s, was the inspiration for the new Bentley Brooklands coupe.
Categories: Events / Tours / Rallies
The author was surprised to find a vintage 3 litre Bentley in the barn of a remote farm in USA. It's been there 30 years, now covered in a deep layer of dust and a covering of pigeon droppings. It is thought to be a 1925 model and to have had a Weymann-type saloon body. The present owner intends to fit a reproduction of the Vanden Plas open tourer body...
Categories: 3 litre
Take a look at the ongoing research on Chassis No. 564, currently owned by David Brownell. Roy Ginn, who owned 564 from 1966 to 1971, contacted us with information and numerous photographs and a newspaper article about the car as it was, when he owned it — a goldmine of information for David. The fascinating bits of history surrounding this car are coming together...
Categories: 3 litre
The new car, the now immortal 3-litre Bentley, was born... The first description appeared in the motor press in May 1919, and a report on a test drive in the experimental car followed in January 1920. Already a polished chassis had been exhibited at the Motor Show of 1919 and, backed by a very nice catalogue, sporting young gentlemen were taking a keen interest in the new make.This first engine, which had hour-glass pistons, developed about 65 b.h.p. at the modest speed of rotation of 3500 rpm.
Categories: 3 litre
In December 1919 the first complete Bentley, Experimental No. 1, underwent a road test in the hands of Sammy Davis of The Autocar, whose report was published in January 1920. During 1920 and 1921, as a result of continuing testing and competition work in sprints, hill climbs and racing on Brooklands, the development of the 3 Litre proceeded. By September 1921, when the first production model was delivered to its owner, the 3 Litre Bentley looked much as we know it today.
Categories: 3 litre
In order to understand why the Speed Six came into being it is necessary to know something of the background which brought it about and to trace its development from the first six cylinder car which Bentley Motors made. The Standard Model 6 1/2 Litre, or Big Six Bentley, as it was sometimes called, was in production long before the 4 1/2 Litre appeared on the scenes and when the Three Litre was still only four years old. The time had come for a much more powerful engine and a stronger chassis, specially designed to carry spacious bodies under town and country conditions.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Chassis No. TB2542: Original-bodied Vintage Bentleys In America
Having owned a vintage Bentley since 1992 I have made many friends in the Bentley hobby around the world. Over time, it has occurred to me that members in the United States possess a considerable number of "matching number — original bodied cars." As a consequence I decided to seek out these cars in an attempt to document them… My first submission and the "sacrificial lamb" for these articles is my own car, an early 6½, "sports model" — chassis no. TB2542.
Categories: 6½ Litre
In the 1930 period, when there was a much larger number of big cars on the market, chassis were built, as a matter of course, to be fitted with standard bodywork by the manufacturers, or with coachwork produced by specialized firms. Within the performance requirement of the average buyer, this system of chassis-plus-bodywork was perfectly satisfactory, but when one came to a luxury car such as the Bentley, the situation was markedly different; to produce the best results, the tout ensemble in excellence had to be matched to a much closer degree, especially with closed bodywork.
Categories: All models
First Sports Car — And Ten Years Older Than The Driver
I had been nurtured in an atmosphere that loved the best in car design. As soon as I was strong enough to carry the heavy bound volumes of my father's carefully treasured Autocars; my eye became familiar with the proud leviathans of the 1920s… As soon as I was able to read for myself, the fond volumes of "Sammy" Davis and Tim Birkin, their white overalls shining as armour, completely captured my schoolboy imagination. They were my heroes, these men who time and again rode those monstrous steeds, who time and again won the victor's laurels for the winged B, and carried the green of England's countryside supreme. Above all in my mind stood the architect, whose name the magnificent cars bore.
Categories: 3 litre
The first 4 1/2-litre car to be produced was the famous old No. 1 "team" chassis, ST 3001, immortalised in motoring history as a participant in the epic crash at White House Corner on the Sarthe Circuit in the course of the Grand Prix d'Endurance at Le Mans in 1927. It will be remembered that hopes of a runaway victory, on this occasion, were dashed to the ground by the unfortunate triple crash involving the entire Bentley team.
Categories: 4½ Litre
As early as 1925 it became apparent to the designer of the, by then, world-famous 3-litre, that an entirely different type of car was required, to meet the needs of a different class of motorist. Such a car should have the attributes of a highspeed touring chassis, should be capable of carrying the enclosed coachwork of the time, and should handle like a dignified town-carriage. The development of such a car was no mean task and "W.O", ably assisted by the redoubtable "K.M.", set about designing a prototype based on their experience with the 3-litre. The six-cylinder evolved closely followed the well-tried layout of the 3-litre, but incorporated several new features.
Categories: 6½ Litre
The Three-litre Bentley Speed Model
With a performance to satisfy the most critical speedman, coupled with a degree of flexibility unusual in a sports car, the 1926 three-litre speed model Bentley shows a distinct improvement over the very fine sports automobiles that have hitherto left the Cricklewood works. Not only is the new car faster by some 10 m.p.h. than the 1925 type, but acceleration has been improved, while the brakes are still more efficient than of yore.
Categories: 3 litre
In 1930 Captain Wolf Barnato, swashbuckling sportsman, Chairman of Bentley Motors, and one of the inimitable "Bentley Boys", during a bucolic evening on his yacht in Cannes wagered £200 he could beat Le Train Blue from Cannes to London driving his Bentley Speed Six. Over 700 miles of, at the time, French circuitous roads, Barnato arrived at the Conservative Club in St James, four minutes before the train arrived at Calais, covering this distance at an average speed of 43.43 mph. Read more about this story and how Bentley re-enacted the race 75 years later here.
Categories: 6½ Litre
A smile spread across Bill Hardy's face as he talked about buying one of the most coveted of all vintage cars. The year was 1943. There was a wartime ban on non-essential private motoring in Britain, so the supercharged Bentley had been languishing in an orchard. It had been listed at £1720 — an enormous price for a car — when new in 1930. Mr. Hardy bought it for £140.
Categories: 4½ Litre S/C
The year was 1929. The place, a pub in Cricklewood, England. The big man took a long drag on his cigarette as he sat back on the barstool and considered the sketch on the envelope in front of him. His friend ordered another round of single malt, and looked at the drawing... The big man was Capt. Woolf 'Babe' Barnato, then-chairman of Bentley Motors Ltd. and son of the wealthy diamond merchant, Barney Barnato. Just three years earlier, 'Babe' had invested quite a sum of capital into the company to keep it afloat, being one of its most noteworthy patrons.
Categories: 6½ Litre
David Wickers has owned his three-litre Bentley for nearly 30 years and has spent the last ten restoring it. Wickers got his 1926 three-litre Speed Model open tourer in 1960 for just £200. In those days, however, that was still a hefty sum for a 24-year-old to find. He sold a vintage 20-horsepower Rolls-Royce to raise the deposit and paid off the balance by hire-purchase installments.
Categories: 3 litre
The Blue Train and the Bentley: The Tale of a legendary challenge
Captain Woolf Barnato, a millionaire sportsman, had a number of swashbuckling Bentleys specially built for him in the 1930s, including a 6 1/2 litre, 3-seater coupe with coachwork by Gurney Nutting. Barnato once put his Speed Six to test, challenging that his car would go faster than the Blue Train express.
Categories: 6½ Litre
Any restoration fan who likes sports cars has a special feeling reserved for the three litre Bentley of the 1920s. Probably no car (although this statement will bring a lot of comment) has ever excited a nation as did the Bentleys of the 20s. Once, when the marque won the race at Le Mans, the drivers were hailed as conquering heroes in England and the celebration lasted for weeks.
Categories: 3 litre
Halcyon Daze — The History of the Bentley
Almost invariably the history of a great automobile involves the story of an individual who desires to produce a car with a unique characteristic or feature. W.O. Bentley's company existed for just twelve years (1919 to 1931), yet within this short span it produced automobiles whose stamina, speed and excellence, combined with the exploits of the drivers who raced them, created a legend based more on fact than myth.
Categories: All models
Sixteen valves, overhead camshaft and dual ignition. Sound like the latest hi-tech engine from BMW or Honda? Well you're wrong. These characteristics describe the three-litre four-cylinder used in W.O. Bentley's first production car the 1920s — the legendary 3-Litre…
Categories: 3 litre
1926 Bentley 3 Litre Boattail Speedster by Vanden Plas
In the earliest years of the Classic Era, that brief time before standard and semi-custom coachwork became de rigueur, nearly all automobiles combined the works of a chassis manufacturer with that of an independent coachbuilder. They were what we could call the two cars in every classic; that which was seen, and that which was most often not — the rolling chassis.
Categories: 3 litre
Aficionado, guru, salesman and racer — Stanley Mann was born for Bentleys. Vintage Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, 8 Litre racer and Mother Gun Speed Six Brooklands car. Plus an Aston Martin DB6 and a Land-Rover Discovery.
Categories: All models
The Classic Restorers: Stanley Mann
One of the first people to specialise in selling, restoring and racing just on emarque, Stanley Mann has seen the Bentley business changes enormously. Gordon Cruickshank talks to him about Crinklewood cars, and W.O. Bentley's view of history.
Categories: All models
Bentley Drivers Club members got together at the Virginia International Raceway in May 2003 for a racing weekend with the Vintage Sports Car Club.... All had fun, no engines were blown, and the racing was a perfect prelude to the tours to follow.
Categories: All models
Apprenticeship of a Master Coachbuilder
Now in the process of handing over the reigns of a successful family business to his son, James Pearce of Sussex, England reflects on nearly 40 years of restoring exotic cars. Years of laughter and tears... successes and trials — more than one comedy of errors.
Categories: All models
Standing in front of a 3 Litre Bentley at the Kensington Gardens Concours, a young fellow engaged me in conversation concerning the differences between this car and one that I had purchased a year prior to that time.
Categories: All models
Modifying A Vintage Bentley For Racing
Ever since the wheel was invented, people have tried to discover ways making them get to speed, or go round faster! Since 1920 owners of Bentleys have not been an exception... In 1920 W.O. Bentley invited Frank Clement to join Bentley Motors as competition and test driver...
Categories: Racing
Most of us give up any hope of owning our dream car, but spiralling values of vintage Bentleys in the early '80s didn't deter a teenage Michael Hay: "It was a book in our school library called Cars, Cars, Cars that really switched me on. On the back cover was an overhead shot of a 1926 3-litre Speed Model." Although Michael was only 14, that image triggered a craving to own one...
Categories: 3 litre