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The only cadogen
bodied speed six dual cowl tourer
in existence and delivered new to
Forrest Lycett, founding member of
the Bentley Drivers Club. Coachwork
by Cadogan 180 bhp, 6,597 cc single
overhead camshaft inline six cylinder
engine with four valve heads and twin
carburetors, twin ignition via Bosch
magneto and Delco coil, four-speed
transmission, front suspension via
solid axle and leaf springs, rear
suspension via live axle and semi-elliptic
lear springs and four wheel mechanical
drum brakes with Dewandre servo assist.
Engine No. NH 2731
The Bentley Legend – A Tale of
Heroes
The history of Bentley is the legend
of a small group of dedicated and
skilled artisans laboring in adversity
with few resources but under the leadership
of a talented, charismatic chief with
vision and persistence. To their aid
comes another, different cadre. Equally
talented and similarly visionary,
they are gifted with chivalric principles,
lofty ideals and resources. Together
they undertake bold campaigns against
daunting foes, eventually triumphing
by their combined efforts and becoming
legend.
They could have been Jason and the
Argonauts, or King Henry and his band
of brothers. Like Henry, their greatest
triumphs came in France and, also
like Henry, chance and adversity intervened
to deny them the ultimate fruits of
their victories.
The chief was Walter Owen Bentley,
a man of manifest charisma who easily
impressed colleagues. He gathered
them in his wake and the tale of Bentley
is also the tale of a steadily growing
entourage of bright, dedicated, useful
people who joined W.O., as he was
universally known, and stayed with
him through thick and thin. The history
of the company is, even more than
with most automobiles, inextricably
intertwined with the personalities
associated with its development. While
other marques can be identified with
a single or very few brilliant (or
stubborn) individuals, Bentley was
a cast of characters, each of them
distinct and most of them loyal stalwarts
from the moment they were touched
by W.O. Bentley, his dreams and his
cars.
Following his apprenticeship with
the Great Northern Railway and two
years immersion in the practical aspects
of automobile maintenance in charge
of the National fleet of Unic taxicabs,
he and his brother Horace Milner Bentley
(known as “HM”), an accountant, took
over the agency for the French DFP
automobiles and formed Bentley and
Bentley Ltd. W.O. was intrigued by
the potential of DFP’s 2 litre model
and, with the help of a mechanic from
the factory, embarked upon a modest
campaign of hillclimbs, record-breaking
at Brooklands and competing in the
1914 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy which
successfully promoted DFP in England.
When World War I intervened W.O. Bentley
applied his empirical design talents
to improving the French Clerget rotary
aircraft engine, notably by adopting
aluminum pistons. It was also during
the War that Bentley got better acquainted
with Frederick Burgess, Humber’s chief
designer. Burgess became one of the
first recruits to Bentley’s vision
of creating a fast sporting British
car.
Following the War in 1919 Bentley
and Bentley was succeeded by Bentley
Motors. Harold Varley joined the team,
adding theoretical skills to Burgess’s
design talent and W.O.’s problem-solving
intuition. The automobile they created
was the 3 Litre, supported by the
hard-working pair of HM Bentley and
A.F.C. Hillstead making ends meet
dealing in DFPs. Nobby Clarke also
joined the Bentley group, now becoming
the size of a platoon, to assemble
the first 3 Litre engine in 1919 with
help from Clive Gallop. Gallop’s initial
tenure at Bentley was short. He got
a better offer from Count Zborowski
but seven years later returned to
the fold at least as long as necessary
to be a member of Bentley’s 1926 Le
Mans team.
The first Bentley 3 Litre was tested
in January 1920 by Sammy Davis, whose
enthusiastic account of it appeared
in The Autocar. Bentley was nowhere
near ready to build production cars
at its new quarters in Cricklewood
and Davis’ endorsement was wasted,
at least as far as HM and Hillstead
were concerned. It was not, however,
wasted on Davis who would become another
of WO Bentley’s enthusiastic supporters.
Assembly of 3 Litres was initiated
as quickly as possible but Bentley,
which lacked any manufacturing capability
of its own, was obliged to sub-contract
almost the entire car to the designs
laid down by Burgess and Varley. Development
was completed simultaneously with
the first assemblies and the company
itself was reconstituted – the first
of many – in late 1920.
W.O. Bentley sought performance and
responsiveness. Fred Burgess, faced
with little time for development and
even less for Harold Varley’s calculations,
pursued strength and reliability through
over-design and -specification. The
company relied upon outside vendors’
interpretations of drawings and specifications,
no doubt compensating with heft and
girth for vendors’ cost-saving interpretations.
The 3 Litres turned out to be very
strong cars and set the pattern, as
well as many of the components, for
the Bentleys to follow.
The first 3 Litre, a coupé, was delivered
in July 1921 to Noel van Raalte, a
gentleman of wealth, stature and a
demonstrated taste for powerful automobiles.
The first owner’s manual was manually
typed and development continued, in
the manner of many automobile companies
at the time and in this stage of their
commercial lives, with the early customers
providing the practical testing.
While racing success manifested itself
in improved sales – some 150 Bentleys
were sold through 1922 and a further
200 or so in 1923 alone – expansion
continued to outstrip cash flow into
the mid 1920s. Developments like front
wheel brakes and the enhanced performance
Speed Model took money to engineer,
money which was not being generated
fast enough through 3 Litre sales.
It was to be a recurring theme at
Bentley – but for a while, the company
would have a patron who would not
only provide badly needed financial
support, but prove to be a heroic
figure whose exploits would capture
the imagination of the public, and
earn accolades for Bentley.
His name was Woolf Barnato, and his
introduction to Bentley came shortly
after he purchased his first Bentley,
a Supersports 3 Litre with a Jarvis
racing body. He teamed up with John
Duff, the first of the Bentley Boys
and a persistent seeker of challenges,
to contest the 24 hour speed record
at the Montlhèry oval outside Paris.
They drove Duff’s Le Mans car, fitted
with a new, lightweight Weymann single
seat body. The 3 Litre performed flawlessly
and set a record of 95.03 mph.
Woolf Barnato’s father, Barney Barnato,
had left England for South Africa
in 1873. When he returned to England
in 1897 he was half-owner of the Kimberley
diamond mines and one of four governors
of De Beers. He died, in suspicious
circumstances, in 1897 leaving his
fortune to Woolf, then only two years
old, whose affairs were managed by
his cousins, Jack and Solly Joel.
Woolf eventually had to sue both for
his inheritance and for back profits,
an action that was largely settled
in 1925, just as Bentley Motors’ expansion
and the development of the 61/2 Litre
had consumed all its resources. With
£1.4 million in his pockets and a
new Bentley in the motor house of
his estate, Ardenrun Hall, Woolf Barnato
was the ideal enthusiast to become
the savior of Bentley Motors and the
most important of all the “Bentley
Boys.”
The Speed Six
Not long after the debut of the new
61/2 Litre cars in 1926, work began
on an improved version. The primary
objective was to increase horsepower,
which would benefit chassis sales
for the coachbuilt cars, but also
provide the power to ensure future
racing successes.
Several months of active development
lead to the completion of the first
demonstration Speed Six chassis in
late 1928. The new cars were similar
to the standard models, but benefited
from a host of performance oriented
upgrades, the most visible of which
was the fitment of a pair of S.U.
carburetors on a new square section
intake manifold. Horsepower was increased
from 147 to 160 and later to 180 with
the new single port engine, and would
ultimately reach 200bhp in the Le
Mans spec racers.
This raised the engine’s output to
160 horsepower and the new model was
introduced at the 1928 Olympia Show
in October as the Speed Six. The first
delivery took place in May of 1929
to Capt. Woolf Barnato, one of the
Bentley Boys, and now the firm’s patron.
1930 Bentley Speed Six Four-Seat Tourer
SB 2773
This 1930 Bentley was delivered in
December 1929 to Forrest Lycett, who
would be one of the founding members
of the Bentley Drivers Club in 1936.
Lycett’s Bentley featured the new
single port 180 horsepower engine
and five gallon sump. Lycett recorded
in an April 1941 letter that appeared
in Motorsport that he had owned nine
Bentleys over the years (five 3 Litres,
two 4 1/2 Litres, this Speed Six and
an 8 Litre) which he used both in
Britain and on the Continent. It is
one of only three Speed Six Bentleys
bodied by Cadogan, and the only one
of them bodied as a four-seat tourer,
the others being Saloons.
In an excerpt from the Bentley Drivers
Club “Review” published in the “Bentley
Bedside Book”, Lycett later recalled,
“It was in Spain on the Speed Six
where I first attained a genuine 100
mph on a public highway.”
Its history following Lycett’s ownership
(he took delivery of 8 Liter YX 5121
in March 1932) has not been established
however it is described by its present
longtime enthusiast owner as completely
original, right down to the matching
original number on the hand crank.
It was restored in the late 80’s in
the U.K. and is known to have been
owned in the U.K. by Stanley Mann
and Adrian Hamilton. After restoration
it became part of the highly selective
collection of John Mozart, later returning
to the U.K. to its next owner, John
Ogden.
The present owner knew the car and
Ogden, and had long wanted a Bentley
Speed Six. It took, by his recollection,
some three years before Ogden had
a chance to buy a supercharged 4 1/2
Litre and agreed to sell the Speed
Six in order to acquire it. That was
in 1992 and it has been the present
owner’s pride and joy ever since.
Shortly after it was acquired and
brought to the U.S. it earned its
first U.S. award, a CCCA National
First Prize, in 1994. That was followed
up a year later by a CCCA Senior award.
It was shown at the 1997 Rolls-Royce
Owners’ Club national meet at Homestead
where it earned first place in the
Touring class.
Subsequently, a complete mechanical
rebuild was undertaken by vintage
Bentley specialist Robert Jefferson
at Sports Car Classics to prepare
the Speed Six for further tours and
events. It has been driven on several
Bentley Drivers Club tours including
the 2002 New England tour, the 2004
tour from Seattle to Monterey and
last year was driven to Connecticut
for the Bentley Drivers Club/Rolls-Royce
Owners’ Club meet where it once again
captured first place in the Touring
division.
In its most recent judging by marque
specialists in 2005 this outstanding
1930 Bentley Speed Six achieved 388
out of a maximum of 400 points, an
exceptional accomplishment for a car
which is regularly used and enjoyed
on the road and long distance tours.
It is carefully restored and prepared
by marque specialists, retains its
original Cadogan four-seat tourer
coachwork, the most desirable body
style on vintage Bentleys and the
only example by this coachbuilder
on the Speed Six. It has been sympathetically
prepared for tours without making
any permanent modifications and can
be quickly returned to show quality
original condition. The owner states
it runs extremely well, as his many
recent tours demonstrate.
The Speed Six is capable of a top
speed over 100 miles per hour and
continuous cruising speeds over 70.
Once the property of one of the original
members of the Bentley Drivers Club,
this Speed Six is the ideal vehicle
to discover and enjoy the experience
of being a Bentley Driver and to sense
why W.O. Bentley and the cars he built
have inspired such loyalty and enthusiasm
for over three quarters of a century.
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