Probably the most famous vintage Bentley of all, the sinister-looking Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman Coupe built for Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato in 1930 and today owned by American Bentley collector Bruce R. McCaw, took the Pullman Trophy for Best of Show at this past weekend’s 2013 St. James’s Concours of Elegance. For years, many believed that this Gurney Nutting Coupe was the car that Barnato drove in his famous March 1930 race against the Calais-Mediterranee Express, or as it was better known, the Blue Train; according to Bentley, however, McCaw’s research determined that the Gurney Nutting Coupe wasn’t built until after the race took place and that Barnato actually drove a Mulliner-bodied Speed Six saloon, now also owned by McCaw.

In 1929, Dr. William Leib, an American physician residing at 118 Hillwood, Hillsborough, California ordered a new Speed 6 Bentley. The chassis number SB2769 came with engine number SH2729. He ordered his car through Rootes Ltd. It is an 11’-6“ chassis, the shortest available for speed sixes and came with a 13/50 differential and a short steering column. The Bentley factory records in the BDC archives show that the car was for export and that the body was built in France.

It is so tempting to arrange the family of "old-school" Bentleys in ascending order of engine size that it comes as quite a shock to realise that the "6 1/2" is several years senior to the "4 1/2". It came out in 1925, although the now better-known Speed Six did not appear until 1930, and Le Mans, that famous Bentley advertising medium, did not see a six-cylinder model until the same year. 

When a member of the Bentley Drivers' Club advertises his machine for sale, there must be more than one good reason for that act, especially as the mere threat of such a proceeding may lead to civil war in the family. In the case of B. A. Foster, of Kettering, the reasons were threefold; a large weekly business mileage, official reluctance to grant coupons for a 6 1/2-litre 38 h.p. Bentley, and the current cost of petrol. The threat of civil war came from Mrs. Foster, and from her too, came the suggestion of fitting a Diesel. 

Vintage Bentley in good measure is provided this week by an account of four Speed Sixes owned in succession by Charles Mortimer, one-time racer of motor cycles, and, in the two Brooklands seasons immediately preceding the war...

My first intensive phase of vintage motoring came to an end on 19 February 1953 when, having cashed the (uncrossed) Postal Order representing the Queen's Shilling, I arrived at Gibraltar Barracks, Bury St Edmunds, in a Bentley driven by Father. For a few seconds — while I disembarked and said goodbye outside the entrance — I commanded some reverence, but it quickly evaporated when I explained my mission.

One day Mr. Tyreshoes told Father that he knew of a 6½-litre Bentley - "It's at Old Thoday's place, at Jack's Hill". Father couldn't resist this, and off they went. Jack's Hill is on the old A1 at Stevenage, and Jack's Hill Cafe was a favourite stopping off point for hungry travellers, especially late at night...

Because few people can these days afford an annual tax of £28 10s., and a consumption of fuel exceeding 1,000 gallons for a moderate year's motoring, the Big Six Bentley is available secondhand for extremely low sums. Nevertheless, it is ever an interesting study to the enthusiast, who may even contemplate-limiting his annual mileage and perhaps licensing only for half the year, to enable him to experience the joys of owning a really big-engined aristocrat that invariably carries its age lightly.

In pre-war days if you wanted to go fast, you bought a car with a large engine, and the speed you achieved depended largely on how much chassis space you were prepared to sacrifice to the all-important motor. Engine power, braking systems and road-holding have been vastly improved since those far-off days, but the principle still remains the same, and the Bentley which forms the subject of this article came as a refreshing interlude in the stream of small high revving cars which have become almost universal nowadays.

To the man who wants the best, price is not of such vital importance and the connoisseurs, whose number is increasing, will always be prepared to purchase such a car as the 6 1/2-litre Bentley… The most striking thing about this model is the amazing quality of silence at all speeds. One naturally expects a 6-cylinder to be flexible but there are few, which combine flexibility and silence with such an excellent performance...

The car was built in 1929 and first raced in the Double-Twelve of that year, Dudley Benjafield and myself driving. After three hours, when well in the lead, we had the misfortune to break the dynamo coupling. It was impossible to repair the coupling at the pits, so the dynamo was removed and put in the back of the car and we went on, soon regaining the lead. The stewards, however, after due deliberation decided we were contravening the rules of running without the dynamo working and in position and compelled us to retire.

Writing recently upon that evergreen topic, old-type Bentleys. Mr. P. Willcox invited my opinion of the Speed Six vis-a-vis the 8-litre. Frankly, the former struck me always as a fortuitously successful improvisation, coming as it did of tainted stock — the standard 6 1/2 litre. Weak frames and cross-members, coupled with harsh suspension, huge wheels, and a high centre of gravity, rendered fast wet-road driving and braking an adventure.

The notes upon this car that follow are not in the more usual form from an actual owner, he being a person unknown at the moment. They come from A. F. Rivers Fletcher, who, as he described in an article published some time ago in The Autocar, was with the old Bentley firm during the racing era. He was fortunate enough to encounter the Speed Six which that redoubtable pair of "Bentley Boys", Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston, drove to victory in the 1930 Le Mans 24-hour race.

The word "unique" is one, which is much abused but can justly be applied to the 6½ litre Bentley speed model, which we have recently tested at Brooklands and on the road. This exceptional car, in addition to being capable of a maximum speed of 90 m.p.h. with a full-sized saloon body, has such a flexible and silent performance on its top-gear ratio of 3½ to 1 that only its instant and exhilarating response to the accelerator pedal gives an inkling of its speed capabilities when it is being driven on crowded roads where a moderate rate of travel is enforced.

Ever since its introduction shortly after the war the three-litre four-cylinder Bentley has enjoyed an exceedingly good name for performance, durability and all-round road-worthiness, so that it is not surprising that a quite unusual amount of interest was shown when a six-cylinder 6½ litre model appeared at Olympia last October. The "Big" Bentley, as it has come to be known, is designed on lines which, while advanced and original in many ways, are essentially sound and cannot by any stretch of imagination be called freakish.

For real originality in bodywork design and lavish equipment one generally has to turn to British cars supplied to special order of Indian potentates, the latest example being a six-cylinder sports Bentley supplied to His Highness the Prince Hamidullah Khan, the reigning Nawab of Bhopal and son of the Begum of Bhopal, who recently abdicated in his favour… The chassis is a production model, with a body specially built by Thrupp and Maberly, Ltd., to His Highness's special requirements, being designed primarily for game hunting. It accommodates four persons in all; the front seats are adjustable and the accommodation at the rear consists of a double-seated dickey, with ample legroom, while the passengers are protected by a screen and apron. Both front and rear screens are so designed that they can almost instantly be lowered so as to fall flat, thus allowing the personnel complete freedom in the use of guns.

Far from being competitive with the famous four-cylinder 3-litre Bentley, the new chassis is intended to carry full-size coachwork and is a high-powered job with a six-cylinder engjne of about 6 1/2 litres capacity. While the design is entirely new in one sense, in general principles it follows the lines, which have been found so successful in the case of the 3-litre model.

The four-cylinder three-litre was built primarily as a sports model. In course of time it has attained a considerable vogue as a fast and reliable touring car with an almost endless life, the original sports model being retained as a separate type of chassis, and it will interest all owners and prospective owners of the three-litre models to know that this chassis will be continued absolutely unaltered, and is not in any way superseded by the new six-cylinder.

In order to understand why the Speed Six came into being it is necessary to know something of the background which brought it about and to trace its development from the first six cylinder car which Bentley Motors made. The Standard Model 6 1/2 Litre, or Big Six Bentley, as it was sometimes called, was in production long before the 4 1/2 Litre appeared on the scenes and when the Three Litre was still only four years old. The time had come for a much more powerful engine and a stronger chassis, specially designed to carry spacious bodies under town and country conditions.

Having owned a vintage Bentley since 1992 I have made many friends in the Bentley hobby around the world. Over time, it has occurred to me that members in the United States possess a considerable number of "matching number — original bodied cars." As a consequence I decided to seek out these cars in an attempt to document them… My first submission and the "sacrificial lamb" for these articles is my own car, an early 6½, "sports model" — chassis no. TB2542.

As early as 1925 it became apparent to the designer of the, by then, world-famous 3-litre, that an entirely different type of car was required, to meet the needs of a different class of motorist. Such a car should have the attributes of a highspeed touring chassis, should be capable of carrying the enclosed coachwork of the time, and should handle like a dignified town-carriage. The development of such a car was no mean task and "W.O", ably assisted by the redoubtable "K.M.", set about designing a prototype based on their experience with the 3-litre. The six-cylinder evolved closely followed the well-tried layout of the 3-litre, but incorporated several new features.

In 1930 Captain Wolf Barnato, swashbuckling sportsman, Chairman of Bentley Motors, and one of the inimitable "Bentley Boys", during a bucolic evening on his yacht in Cannes wagered £200 he could beat Le Train Blue from Cannes to London driving his Bentley Speed Six. Over 700 miles of, at the time, French circuitous roads, Barnato arrived at the Conservative Club in St James, four minutes before the train arrived at Calais, covering this distance at an average speed of 43.43 mph. Read more about this story and how Bentley re-enacted the race 75 years later here.

The year was 1929. The place, a pub in Cricklewood, England. The big man took a long drag on his cigarette as he sat back on the barstool and considered the sketch on the envelope in front of him. His friend ordered another round of single malt, and looked at the drawing... The big man was Capt. Woolf 'Babe' Barnato, then-chairman of Bentley Motors Ltd. and son of the wealthy diamond merchant, Barney Barnato. Just three years earlier, 'Babe' had invested quite a sum of capital into the company to keep it afloat, being one of its most noteworthy patrons.

Captain Woolf Barnato, a millionaire sportsman, had a number of swashbuckling Bentleys specially built for him in the 1930s, including a 6 1/2 litre, 3-seater coupe with coachwork by Gurney Nutting. Barnato once put his Speed Six to test, challenging that his car would go faster than the Blue Train express.