Proverbially there is many an untrue word spoken in all seriousness, but when in 1930 The Autocar described the then new 8-litre Bentley as "not a sports model in any shape or form" the writer could hardly be blamed for failing to foresee that a track-rigged edition (re-styled the Barnato Hassan Special) would later raise the Brooklands lap record to 142.6 m.p.h.. or that later still the same machine would become one of the fastest sports cars on the roads of Britain.    Continued...