Forrest Lycett and his amazing 8-litre Bentley (Page 9 of 9)
Motor Sport Magazine, July 1998

 

I had by then timed the 8-litre to do a s s ¼-mile in just 15sec and 0-100mph (3500rpm) in well under 20sec on the 3.3 axle-ratio and 700x19 racing back tyres. Its Lewes time had come clown to 20.2sec. Calling at ‘Mac's’ workshop during the war, I found him lowering and lightening the famous Bentley, supposedly using light-alloy cross members, a lighter prop-shaft, and a new body. The gearbox was to be moved rearwards to improve weight distribution and the gear change, the lever now external like the brake lever, was now spring-loaded, after it had proved unsatisfactory when Lycett was demonstrating the car at Syston, beating Hunter's s/c 2.9 Alfa Romeo by 0.38sec. On PMS2 fuel its power output was about 250bhp (from 220bhp) yet in road motoring it had given 13mpg. The unladen weight was now quoted as 1 ton 4 cwt. Incidentally, the dynamometer 'Mac' used had previously belonged to Count Zborowski, and then, in turn, to Bentley Motors.

 

When peace broke out Forrest Lycett resumed competition driving, at first racing his 4½ Bentley, which lapped Silverstone's then Club circuit at 71.3mph. In 1948 the 8-litre came out again, when Leslie Johnson drove it in a VSCC kilometre sprint and was third in a race against a supercharged racing Alta and a T3513 Bugatti. Perhaps Lycett's finest post-war performance was in 1959, being timed for a kilo at 141.131 mph in Belgium, at a BDC meet, at the age of 74. Sadly, the following year he was knocked down and killed by a London taxi, when crossing the road on his way to a football match, as a director, I think, of one of the clubs.

 

Delahaye, Darracq, Lago-Talbot, Alfa Romeo and Bugatti folk may not have seen the point of his 8-litre Bentley but I feel sure that in vintage circles there were those who approved of the slogan "Still The World's Finest Sporting Car" which it carried unobtrusively on a dashboard plaque.

 

 

 

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