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.    Continued...