Category: Bentley

The Bentley Continental has been described as one of the most attractive and refined motor vehicles ever built and when introduced in 1952 was the world’s fastest saloon. The Bentley was perceived by many as a Rolls-Royce with a different radiator grille and badges yet the manufacturers insisted on promoting it as `The Silent Sports Car’. Silent it might have been but it was far from being a sports car. To improve performance the Bentley Continental had a weight reduction from 1860kg to 1650kg and a change in gear ratios… Read more

    Although the Blower’ Bentley was a symbol of the excellence of British engineering and was, in its day, every boy’s dream racer, it was shunned by its designer, W O Bentley, a former locomotive engineer, who believed that engines were everything. If a car needed more power he believed it better to enlarge the engine rather than tune it for better performance. But due to this belief Bentley paid a heavy price for his love of massive powerplants. The chassis and tyres of his cars suffered from having… Read more

Bentleys came to be regarded as the archetypal vintage sports cars following their many successes at Le Mans. Introduced in 1929 the 6.5-litre six-cylinder model was designed to give the marque a more prestigious, quieter performance model. On the 6.5-litre and the later 8-litre models the camshaft was driven by a system of coupling rods which were quieter than the shaft. In all other cars Bentley kept to the single overhead-camshaft layout until the time of his unsuccessful 4-litre model of 1931, by which point his company was on the… Read more