Synopsis: All car enthusiasts know, or think they know, what a vintage Bentley should look like. It should have a Vanden Plas four-seater tourer body, and should be painted green. But Bentleys weren't always like that. When these cars were new, other types of bodies — saloons, limousines, fixed-head coupés, landaulets, cabriolets, drophead coupés, sedancas de ville — outnumbered the tourers and sports models. Sadly, these were the bodies which were the first to be scrapped, even though their chassis were often saved.

W O Bentley had never intended that his cars should become the luxury playthings of the rich. His first model, the Three Litre, although expensive, was clearly aimed at the sporting motorist. Very quickly, however, it attracted buyers who wanted to body it with heavy saloon and limousine styles, for which it was not well suited. In response, Bentley first increased the wheelbase and then developed more powerful models — the 6½ Litre (and its high-performance version, the Speed Six), the 4½ Litre, and finally the magnificent Eight Litre. British society seized on these cars and clothed them with equally magnificent bespoke bodywork.