Motoring Discussion > A graceful beast, Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Armel Coussine Replies: 17
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New Sun 12 Jun 16 16:40 
 A graceful beast, - Armel Coussine
the Bentley tourer on p12 of my comic's motoring supplement today.

It isn't a gross and overbearing Speed Six, and it isn't one of the expensive, unreliable 'Blower Bentleys'... they weren't up to supercharging like the contemporary Mercedeses and used to cook their engines.

It looks to me like a 4.5 litre car though, and an unusually pretty one. There were some svelte 3 litre cars too.
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New Sun 12 Jun 16 18:14 
 A graceful beast, - Slidingpillar
Name of paper? The 4.5 engine is regrettably often dropped into 3 litre cars just to confuse the issue.
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New Sun 12 Jun 16 20:51 
 A graceful beast, - bathtub tom
Top Gear Extra claim Bentley are to put a diesel engine in one of their current models!
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New Sun 12 Jun 16 22:58 
 A graceful beast, - MD
Apparently Gentlemen do not drive diesels.
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 00:32 
 A graceful beast, - Harleyman
>> Apparently Gentlemen do not drive diesels.
>>

Unfortunately, Bentleys are no longer bought exclusively by gentlemen.
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 06:55 
 A graceful beast, - MD
>> Unfortunately, Bentleys are no longer bought exclusively by gentlemen.
>>
Good point well made young man:)
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 11:30 
 A graceful beast, - Ian (Cape Town)
>> Unfortunately, Bentleys are no longer bought exclusively by gentlemen.
>>
What was the old adage?
Bents for Gents, Rolls for proles?
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 00:21 
 A graceful beast, - stan10
" .. diesel engine in one of their current models! .. "

Slight lack of info here from AC methinks - surely "Blower", and "Speed Six" indicates 1920's to 1930's ?

Not diesel territory, and certainly not VW stock ?

Link - ?
"Comic" - ?

Give us something to chew on please AC :-)
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 00:25 
 A graceful beast, - No FM2R
They put this on their website yesterday...

www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/bentley/bentley-bentayga-review/
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 10:03 
 A graceful beast, - Slidingpillar
ACs original post referred to two models of real Bentleys, or Cricklewood Bentleys. Neither were produced after 1931 when the company was taken over by Rolls Royce and basically asset striped. Rolls were most keen to make sure that nobody else made the 8 litre which in many respects, was a superior chassis to the Rolls chassis of the time.

The current 'Bentley' is merely a bought name and has no more relationship with a real one than my sandals do... The fact that VW thought they were buying Rolls Royce also makes an interesting pub tale. GKN owned the Rolls Royce name at the time, and sold it separately to the current 'Rolls Royce'. Neither make has real history, even though they try to convince you they do.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Mon 13 Jun 16 at 10:04
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 16:33 
 A graceful beast, - Armel Coussine
The Blower Bentleys were financed by a woman called Dorothy Paget on behalf of Tim Birkin. They were a sort of 'me too' with the Mercedes of the time which used supercharging successfully. But that Bentley 4 cylinder couldn't stay together for long at very high outputs.

The Speed Six, and indeed the 8 litre Bentleys were really magnificent beasts even if some Frenchman called them 'lorries'. The Bentley Boys were earlier, in the twenties, and drove Speed Sixes competitively, living it up in Mayfair and Biarritz between races. Kidston and Benjafield were two leading lights.

France and Italy promoted penniless young talent in racing cars, but the conservative British way was for rich guys to finance it themselves. Must have blown a few respectable fortunes.
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 17:18 
 A graceful beast, - Slidingpillar
Must have blown a few respectable fortunes.

Yes, hence the saying: 'How do you make a small fortune motor racing? Start with a large one.'
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 18:03 
 A graceful beast, - Armel Coussine
>> Name of paper?

Telegraph Saturday motoring supplement.

>> The 4.5 engine is regrettably often dropped into 3 litre cars just to confuse the issue

The one in the comic didn't look like that at all. Of course there are lots of Bentley specials and always were. But the one in the photo is an unusually elegant and graceful 4 seat barchetta thingy from Bentley's great days. Just gorgeous it is.

Great big huge friction dampers... awful things, near-useless and need constant fussy adjustment.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 13 Jun 16 at 18:04
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 20:07 
 A graceful beast, - Slidingpillar
Had a look at website. If it was the blue Bentley KW4429, it's a 1928 3 litre. (I googled the registration).
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 20:12 
 A graceful beast, - Armel Coussine
>> it's a 1928 3 litre. (I googled the registration).

Well I got that wrong.

It's still a very good-looking piece of horseflesh.
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 20:25 
 A graceful beast, - Slidingpillar
Oh indeed, the earlier 3 litres often have prettier bodies. The amazing thing about buying a Bentley then was the 5 year update guarantee, or whatever they called it. Early cars didn't have front brakes, but most were later fitted with them by the factory for free. No wonder Bentley went bankrupt in the end!
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New Mon 13 Jun 16 20:46 
 A graceful beast, - Harleyman
My first close-up experience of a 1920's/30's Bentley was the one owned by the father of a contemporary of mine at school, who was then Bishop of Sherwood; a delightfully avuncular chap who , if memory serves me right, owned a couple of Brough Superiors too.

I've always thought that those pre-war Bentleys looked so right, despite their size.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Mon 13 Jun 16 at 20:46
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New Thu 23 Jun 16 19:07 
 A graceful beast, - stan10
Late back here for a couple of reasons, but rude of me not to say "thanks" after asking for more info (and i did follow it up)

That's it really - the forum has moved on, time to catch up.
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