I stated my concerns regarding the originality of chassis numbers in an article in January of this year (When is a Vintage Bentley a Real Vintage Bentley), only to get a lot of reaction. The officers and members of the Bentley Drivers Club do have concerns and opinions as well as the D.V.L.A. It is one thing to expose the problem and another to solve it.

The www.VintageBentleys.org web site is devoted to the history of the cars built by W.O. Bentley and the original chassis numbers are our link to those cars. By creating new chassis Vintage Bentleys to replace those original chassis cars that have disappeared, makes it difficult to follow the histories of the original cars. I do not care if someone creates a Vintage Bentley, but to stamp an original number on a newly created car and then claim it to be an original W.O. Bentley car is simply falsifying the records. There are those who have promoted and profited from this practice. Do you approve of that? We hope the BDC will solve the problem because they have all the available information to do so.

The good news is that the vast majority of Vintage Bentley owners have cars with original chassis numbers and we urge those owners to speak out. Several have and we hope others will too. We now have a place on our web site for you and anyone else to discuss BDC affairs. http://www.vintagebentleys.org/bdc-news/. Go to 'BDC Matters - News' at the top of the Right Navigation Bar on our home page or any page on our website. Follow the discussion or better yet, get involved. It is your club so make the most of this opportunity. Let me assure you that anyone can contribute news and information under BDC Matters. Remember that VintageBentleys.org is just the conduit and not the source of information. As long as the source is authentic and identifiable, we will publish what is sent to us, attributing the information to the contributor. You are welcome to e-mail us your views / counterpoints / comments / documentation and we will publish it as a BDC Matters news item.

Bring on the facts
We have been told that a list of the fake chassis numbers exists as well as who is responsible for them. We have been given verbal confirmation of both and we have been told who has this information. When will it become available? We cannot continue to point out that there is a problem and not show the proof. Until that person or someone on their behalf comes forward, we are no longer going to discuss this subject. It is now a subject for you and BDC Matters. Meanwhile, VintageBentleys.org will stick to its main objective, which is recording the history of each Bentley that W.O. Bentley built. You are the source of that information. Thank you.

Best wishes,
Robert