"Dear Mr. McLellan,

Your VB Newsletter solely about Vintage Bentleys fills a huge and growing publication gap (in my mind) between those of us still eccentric enough to be owning, maintaining, and driving W.O.’s fastest trucks in Europe, and the onslaught of post W.O. vehicles, however elegant, smooth and silent they may be.

I read the 1942 article on YF 1396 with great, great interest since I bought it, with its original UK plates, in 1953 from Chipstead Motors in London, drove it all over Europe, (very un-restored!), over the Alps as far south as Venice and Rome, then back to London, via the Corniche, Avignon and Calais, where I could not part with it and brought it to the US.

The article accurately describes the car and its adventurous maintenance happenings by Bentleys, etc, till "the War", when it may have been laid up. It is almost entirely original, chassis number LT1591, engine number AX1665, VdP body number 1330. Its condition was in "decline" when I finally had it restored in the UK in 1999, completed in 2001. I drove it all over UK and Scotland for a couple of years, then brought it back to US in 2004, and now have it in San Francisco, being "spruced up" with TLC in Berkeley. Its existence as a "very original car" has been correctly documented with all the correct numbers, in several official BDC books, including by Clare Hay. With luck and effort I hope to get it back on the road in the next several months.

If you are interested, I could write more. It is a very interesting, beautiful car, and appears now almost exactly as it was when W.O. created it.

Sincerely, and good luck with your excellent publication."

Photographs were taken at New England Region BDC Tour, 2012

In USA in 2006 / Owned by a BDC member

Photographs were taken during 2006 Bridgehampton Rallye in Bridgehampton, New York.

The 3-litre Bentley when it was 15 years old.