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Events / Tours / Rallies
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
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’.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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"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..."
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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.”
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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."
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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...
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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.
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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.
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