Before you say, "Another Bentley racing history?", note that this one combines the W.O. Bentley racing era with the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen built Bentley race cars and their successes. The Vintage Bentley racing does overwhelmingly dominate the book and if you wish to pursue the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen years, there are some fine books that cover those subjects more extensively that this Venebles' book. The strong points of this book are that it has very good coverage of the events and details with good photographic coverage. More important for many Vintage Bentley enthusiasts, especially those that are new to Vintage Bentleys, this book is relatively inexpensive compared to making the effort and spending a vast amount of money collecting all the out-of-print books covering Vintage Bentley racing.

Bentley Motors published their own publicity literature immediately after they achieved a racing success and the English magazines, The Motor, The AutoCar and Motor Sport were on the scene capturing the events. Most of those articles are available in the out-of-print Brooklands Books of the 1960s and 1970s. The first comprehensive racing history of Bentley was Bentleys at Le Mans by Dr. Dudley Benjafield (one of the original "Bentley Boys") in 1948. That was followed by A Racing History Of The Bentley by Darell Berthon in 1956. I am rather partial to this book as I now own his Vintage Bentley, plus it is a very thorough history loaded with photographs, thanks to the Bentley Drivers Club archives. Michael Hay then published two outstanding works, Bentley: The Vintage Years, 1986 and Bentley Factory Cars 1919 - 1931, 1993. Both are highly researched and outstanding works that include Vintage Bentley racing history. Other authors, Ray Roberts for example, have contributed racing history at club races and other events. Collecting all of these out-of-print books is a daunting task left to the most fanatical Vintage Bentley enthusiasts.

David Venables, logically begins his racing history with W.O. Bentley racing his DEP in 1913, which sets the stage for W.O.'s racing mindset once he established Bentley Motors in 1919. Readers to his web site most assuredly are familiar with racing history through 1931 and the author documents the events with excellent coverage. More interesting to many of our readers will be the years of club racing of your cars from that point up to the present. Combine that with the activities of Rolls-Royce built Bentley cars like the Embiricos that raced at Le Mans in 1949. Bentleys return to Le Mans in 2001 and then placed first and second in 2003 in Volkswagen built cars giving Bentley a total of six Le Mans wins that began in 1924.

Adding this latest Bentley racing history to your collection is well worthwhile even if you have all the out-of-print books. At least buy it as a gift for someone with less knowledgeable so they can appreciate your Vintage Bentley and aspire to own one themselves.