This car - updated Chassis No. -
Engine No. -
Registration No. UU 5999 (Current owner / former owners, please come forward with further updates. - March 2018)
June 2019
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
1929 Bentley Speed Six Saloon
Chantilly Art & Elégance - 29 & 30 June, 2019
Source:
Flickr, posted by user 'LD Photography'
Posted: Aug 24, 2020
Im quite sure
Wayne McLaren is correct in stating
that the mystery had been
solved back in the early 1980s
- although I, myself, only heard
of it via Clare Hays research
for Bruce McCaw - however its
not entirely true to say that Captain
Barnato (and, of course, Dale Bourn)
departed from Cannes station at precisely
the same time as the Blue Train.
During the research for my painting
I managed to obtain a copy of Woolf
Barnatos much-belated (28th
March 1946) reminiscence of his run,
from The Bentley Drivers Clubmagazine.
Amongst many other nuggets from this
priceless first-person-source
he makes it clear that after receiving
word that the train had departed the
station, he and Bourn finished their
drinks in the bar of The Carlton Hotel
and departed, from there,
at just after 5:54pm...and, for the
record, there was NO actual wager!
He also writes of getting back to
England ...In my saloon speed
six which just goes to show
that the mystery solved itself way
back in 1946 !!!"
Source:
Thomas Mark
Posted: Jul 05, 2013
June
2013
"Chassis no.
HM2855 is frequently referred to as
the Blue Train Bentley. This is incorrect
notwithstanding it being seen in most
paintings inspired by the 'event'.
I accompanied a friend on a visit
to Mortimer, an auto book dealer in
England in 1982. We asked him why
he had sold HM2855 ostensibly
the Blue Train Bentley which
he had bought from a dealer (at that
time, in deplorable condition). He
said when he researched the car prior
to restoring it, he found that it
was built after the race, so
it could not have been HM2855 car
in the race. He therefore sold it
before restoring it.
So the identity of the real Blue Train
Bentley was established in 1982, many
years ahead of the publication of
this detail in Hay's book in 1997.
But the belief that it was the 'Blue
Train Bentley' persisted. Surely others
would have figured this out but no
public announcements were made.
The real Bentley that did race the
Blue Train left the station in France
at the same time as the train but
at no time were the Bentley and the
train within sight of each other at
the beginning, end or anywhere in
between. Barnato beat the train to
the London station but then drove
on before the train arrived.
So much has been made over something
that had been simply overlooked. All
someone had to look at was what car
Barnato owned at the time of the race.
Instead they looked at the car that
he owned after the race."
Source:
Wayne McLaren
Posted: Jun 30, 2013
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
Blue Train artwork
by Maskom Hart Productions shown in
a video (Oil on canvas with paper
stencil)
"I thought your readers might
like to read / hear about my inaugural
Sight & Soundtrack
music / artwork..." - Thomas
Mark
Captain Joel Woolf
Barnato meets Maestro Buddy Bregman
in the first in an exclusive series
of 16 'Sight & Soundtrack' contemporary
artworks conceived & produced
by Maskom Hart.
...TO CATCH AND PASS THE CANNES BLUE
TRAIN !!!
Fuses the fictional contemporaneous
reporting in a London journal of Bentley
Motors Chairman and legendary "Bentley
Boy," Captain Joel Woolf Barnato's
typically audacious wager at the dinner
table of The Carlton Hotel, on the
evening of Wednesday 12th March 1930
~ (that the following evening he and
relief driver, Dale Bourn would set
out and duly beat the iconic 'Blue
Train,' home, in a head-to-head, cross-country
race from Cannes to Calais/Boulogne
{ and onward to a London club } in
his own, personal 6.5 litre Bentley
'Speed Six' formal-saloon) ~ with
the heart-pounding, adrenalin-fuelled,
kicking-swing of a high-octane, all-star,
18-piece Big-Band, thrillingly conducted
in Hollywood CA by Buddy Bregman.
In short, the painting
depicts Bentley Boy, Captain
Joel Woolf Barnato & Dale Bourns
legendary March 1930 Blue Train Race
which has never been re-painted correctly
since Terrence Cuneos beautiful
picture Bentley vs
Blue Train was found to
be factually incorrect on several
counts by Bentley Historian Dr Clare
Hay, back in 2006...
See Wikipedia
entry for: ('Blue Train Races') and
('Woolf Barnato')
"After exhaustive factual research
on both train & car not
least going back to an original 1946
written source c/o The Bentley Drivers
Club Magazine it is painted
with more than a nod to both Hearst
Publishings Popular Mechanics
covers and F.Gordon Crosbys
famed 1930s British Autocar
illustrations...and incorporates various
coded references to amongst others,
Cole Porter; the instrumental bridge
of whose innovatively re-arranged
song, From This Moment On,
being what you hear playing on YouTube."
"Notwithstanding all of the above,
and despite it being the genesis of
every single BBC Television Top
Gear racing challenge since,
Captain Barnatos Blue Train
Race was never given due prominence
in the British press at the time,
owing to the Daily Expresss
apparent advertising arrangement with
Rover!"
Source:
Thomas Mark (Maskom Hart Productions
(UK))
Posted: Jun 13, 2013
September
2007
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
This 1929 Speed Six
Bentley, owned by Bruce and Jolene
McCaw, of Medina, is at the center
of a recently solved automotive mystery
about the "Blue Train Bentley."
It will be on display Sunday, Sep.
7, 2007, at the Kirkland Concours
d'Elegance. (Photo by Roy Cobb)
Like most great tales
of man and machine, the story of the
"Blue Train Bentley" begins
in a bar.
It was 1930. Bentley Motors Chairman
Woolf Barnato was sitting in the Carlton
Bar in Cannes, France, with his secretary,
Dale Bourne. Over their glasses, they
mused about whether Barnato's Speed
Six Bentley could get to London before
the reknowned Blue Train.
Barnato and Bourne left the bar and
drove through the night. After 786
miles, they pulled into the Royal
Automobile Club in Pall Mall at 3:30
p.m. 15 minutes before the
Blue Train reached its stop in Calais,
on the France side of the English
Channel. The train still had far to
go, while the Speed Six had a new
name: "The Blue Train Bentley."
But the story didn't end there. Over
the years, another Bentley emerged
that put in dispute which car truly
deserved the moniker. After an Agatha
Christie-worthy investigation, complete
with service records and the fine-toothed
findings of Bentley experts, the rightful
"Blue Train Bentley" was
only recently certified.
It wasn't the sexy, fastback Gurney
Nutting coupe that raced through the
night. The car's service record shows
it didn't even pass the factory's
final test until 10 weeks after the
Blue Train run.
The true "Blue Train Bentley"
is an unassuming, black, fabric-covered
"saloon," or sedan, built
by H.J. Mulliner in 1929. Barnato
had owned it for a year and apparently
loved it he put over 16,000
miles on it in just under a year.
Source:
The Seattle Times
Posted: Sep 01, 2007
2006
In
USA in 2006 / Owned by a BDC member
2006
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
These photographs
were taken at Retromobile Paris, 2006
"This is almost certainly
the car Woolf Barnato really drove
to beat the Blue Train in March 1930
a 1930 Speed Six H. J. Mulliner
Weymann saloon (BA2592), also owned
by Bruce McCaw." From
the article 'The Real Blue Train Bentley'
By Michael Hay (UK), Photography John
W. de Campi
Source:
The Flying Lady, January-February 2002
Posted: Jul 05, 2013
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
Source:
Richard C. Moss
Posted: Jan 05, 2007
June
1972
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
"I knew this
car in 1972. It was owned by a friend
I was at school with, William Sykes,
from near Eltisley. He and his brother
restored the car on their farm. My
friend drove this car as my wedding
car on June 2nd 1972. I'd lost all
pictures of the car, but my daughter
has just found them; I will forward
as soon as I get them."
"As I mentioned
in my previous communication (above),
I had used this car for my wedding.
Unfortunately I don't have the chassis
number or engine number but like the
latest comments on this car with this
registration. I was surprised to see
it with a coupe body. When my friend
used it for my wedding car it was
certainly a tourer body.
So as promised previously I now have
the photo taken outside the church
at Little Paxton, Cambs. of my wedding
on 2nd June 1972."
Source:
David Abbott
Posted: Jul 25, 2012
1969
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
Source:
Pathe News
Posted: Mar 14, 2018
1960s
- 1970s
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
"I was very
surprised to see the above Bentley
wearing a saloon body. A local man
named Ian showed me some rather faded
colour photos of his parents with
two Bentleys in tourer garb -- one
of which was UU 5999. The photos were
probably taken in the early '60s."
"UU 5999 was owned by his uncle
Barrie (although it was registered
in Barrie's wife's name), some time
in the 60's-70's. The pictures are
said to have been taken outside a
pub in Abbottsley that Barrie and
his wife kept. The lady in red is
Ian's mother. That's all Ian seems
to know.
Source:
Nigel Hamlin-Wright
Posted: Sep 23, 2011
1966 - 1999
This car was owned by William Sykes from 1966 to 1999.
Source:
William Sykes (Former owner)
Posted: Nov 24, 2015
1966
Click
on thumbnail for larger view
"The car as purchased in 1966."
Source:
William Sykes (Former owner)
Posted: Nov 24, 2015
EARLIEST
RECORD OF HISTORICAL FACTS & INFORMATION
Chassis No.
BA2592
Engine No.
BA2594
Registration
No.
UU 5999
Date of Delivery:
Jun 1929
Type of Body:
Saloon (Weymann)
Coachbuilder:
H J Mulliner
Type of Car:
SP2
First Owner:
BARNATO Capt
More Info:
Michael Hay, in his book Bentley:
The Vintage Years, 1997, states:
"5/29 "Headlamps changed for those
from NX 3457". Now Vanden Plas tourer,
original body on chassis WB 2562."