G.H. Dale's 4½ Litre Bentley RC43
Contributed by J P Dale (Grandson of former owner)
Bentley DMX 419 (RC43) was bought by my grandfather G.H. Dale in 1968. Upon close inspection he discovered it had a replacement chassis from another car at some time in its life but the log book had remained unaltered. This is all explained in BDC Review 120, page 120.
1968
The car had also been owned by Ian Robertson who had purchased it in 1938 from a garage in Wales. It had been involved in a heavy crash. After the War he located another chassis and some replacement front wings and got the car back on the road. I think it only had one more owner before my grandfather purchased it.
My grandfather wrote to the Bentley Drivers Club shortly after purchasing it and explained about the replacement chassis, the number being UK3286. It is stamped UK3286 on the front cross member and dumb iron and no part of the original chassis has appeared to have been used. They wrote back (see letter below) and explained that there was no record of UK3286 still being in existence or what had happened to it, they also suggested that my grandfather should alter the log book and change the chassis number from RC43 to UK3286. For whatever reason my grandfather, decided against this and the chassis number is still registered as RC43 to this day. The car is still in the family and still retains its original VDP body.
Letter received from BDC in 1969
Another car has since appeared using the chassis number UK3286.