Bentley history

1910 - 1919
PICTURE A YOUNG MAN MESMERISED BY THE POSSIBILITIES OF MECHANICAL INVENTION THAT CHARACTERISED THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY.

A twenty-two year old obsessed by speed and its potential for changing the world. An engineering genius with an intuitive grasp of the dynamics of the amazing new internal combustion engine. Put those images together with a precocious visionary who believed nothing was impossible and you have some sense of W.O. Bentley on the brink of creating a legend in his name. And just one more thing. He liked to win.

Competitive motorcycle racing at the Isle of Man and the newly-opened Brooklands circuit gave him his taste for speed but couldn’t satisfy his hunger for power. That was to come in 1912 when he and his brother, H.M. Bentley, acquired the UK agency for the French Doriot, Flandrin & Parant (DFP). On his first run in the Aston-Clinton hill-climb, W.O. broke the class record – with his wife Leonie in the passenger seat. The DFP was “quick, robust, sporting in character and of the highest quality”, the very qualities that were to become the foundations of the cars he went on to produce. 
On a trip to the DFP factory in France he noticed an aluminium piston being used as a paperweight by one of the company directors. He adapted his own DFPs with this revolutionary material and drove them to one racing triumph after another. Indeed, these lightweight pistons quickly became the “secret ingredient” of Bentley success with his conservative competitors continuing to regard aluminium as too weak to withstand the inferno of the engine block. 
The beginning of the Great War brought new challenges. The frivolities of the DFP era were over. W.O. turned his attention to more serious affairs, creating the Bentley Rotary I (BR1) following an Admiralty Commission to power the Sopwith Camel, and with it, Allied dominance of the air. 
The BR1 and the subsequent BR2 epitomised Bentley’s ability to transform raw design ingredients into masterpieces of power and reliability. In his later life he admitted that nothing had given him more pride than this contribution to the war effort.
In 1919, with the war over and British industry booming, W.O. turned his attention to the dream he’d been cherishing these long seven years, building the car that would satisfy his own extraordinarily high expectations as a driver, as an engineer, as a competitor and as a gentleman. 
Luck and good judgement helped him to recruit the finest available talent. Sheer persistence and the will to succeed rewarded him, in October 1919 at his service shop in New Street Mews, with the deafening bellow of the very first Bentley engine, the awesome 3-litre.
All that now remained was to build a car around it.

1920 - 1929

BENTLEY’S DECADE OF GLORY BEGAN, APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH, WITH A RAVE REVIEW IN PURPLE PROSE BY THE AUTOCAR AFTER ROAD-TESTING THE FIRST COMPLETE
BENTLEY, THE HAND-BUILT EXP1 PROTOTYPE POWERED BY THE NEW 3-LITRE ENGINE.

“For the man who wants a true sporting type of light-bodied car for use on a Continental tour,” wrote the magazine, “the three-litre Bentley is undoubtedly the car par excellence.”
It had taken nearly a year of grit and determination, in the cramped confined of the mews near Baker Street, to build a chassis light enough and strong enough to live up to the driving experience Bentley wanted from the new engine.
With production established in Cricklewood, London, two more prototypes followed as W.O. Bentley laboured passionately to produce the car of his dreams, “A fast car, a good car, the best in its class.” And another eighteen months elapsed before the first Bentley was finally sold to Noel van Raalte, a wealthy and influential playboy, on September 21st, 1921.
The two things that mattered most to potential car buyers in the 1920’s were reliability and speed, though not necessarily in that order. And for a young, unknown manufacturer there was only one place where your credentials in these matters could be demonstrated beyond doubt – on the racetrack.
In 1922 a Bentley 3-litre snatched the British Double Twelve Hours record at an average speed of 86.79mph. In 1923 a Bentley 3-litre finished fourth at the inaugural 24-hour race at Le Mans. More honours followed – a win at Le Mans in 1924; the twenty-four hour world record at Montlhery by a Bentley travelling at an average speed of 95mph.
But W.O. was still not satisfied. As demand for the Bentley chassis grew, so too did the fashion for heavier and more luxurious coachwork. He needed a more powerful, more refined engine. The 6.5-litre was launched in 1925, laying the foundations for the famous Speed Six racer, the innovative 4.5-litre, and the glorious Le Mans triumphs of 1927 – 1930 when the fame of Bentley’s racing domination reverberated around the motoring world.
These were the years of the Bentley Boys, a decade of extraordinary adventures, technological advances and victory celebrations, unblighted even by financial difficulties due to the intervention of diamond heir, Woolf Barnato, in 1926.
But in 1929 Black Thursday loomed, and the long shadow it was to cast on the future on the now famous winged “B”.

1930 - 1939

A NEW DECADE BEGINS, AND THE SCENE IS SET FOR THE EAGERLY AWAITED SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BRITAIN’S TWO MOST FAMOUS MARQUES. BENTLEY, FRESH FROM ITS LATEST ONE-TWO AT LE MANS, LAUNCHES AN 8-LITRE DIRECTLY IN COMPETITION AGAINST ITS FABLED ROLLS-ROYCE RIVAL.

It’s a clash of proven performance against legendary smoothness, of sporting handling against quiet refinement.
Sadly, the Great Depression steps in to stop the battle before it’s begun. Rolls-Royce Ltd buys the financially vulnerable Bentley Motors, production moves to Derby, and an entirely new chapter of Bentley development is about to be written.
Despite the misgivings of Bentley loyalists, the first offspring of the unlikely marriage is dubbed by W.O. himself, now working for Rolls-Royce, as “the best car ever to bear my name”. Known as “The Silent Sports Car”, the 3 1/2  -litre combines the best attributes of both brands – agility with luxury, power with silence.
New ideas and technological advances bring further refinements to the Bentley concept. A 4 1/4 -litre engine, an overdrive gearbox, independent front suspension in the successful Mark V and, at last, with war-clouds blackening the European skies, the first tentative hint of the future Bentley Continental.

1940 - 1949

 FOR BENTLEY PURISTS, THESE WERE THE DARK YEARS. WAR BROUGHT AN ABRUPT END TO THE CONTINENTAL PROJECT. INNOVATION GAVE WAY TO RATIONALISATION.

And the new Bentleys were obliged to share an ever-increasing number of production and design attributes with their blue-blooded brothers at Rolls-Royce.
Objectively, of course, most of these were exceptional in their own right. But Bentley lovers have never been renowned for objectivity, and to their eyes it appeared as if the unique qualities of the Bentley brand were being diluted with each succeeding model.
But all was by no means lost. The move to Crewe in 1946 meant access to the community of highly skilled engineers and mechanics who had migrated to this busy industrial hub during the war. New ideas and new technologies found their way into the post-war Bentleys, albeit under the fine scrutiny of Rolls-Royce management.
The Bentley Mark VI, with a modified 4 1/4 -litre engine and a shortened version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith chassis, became the first motor car to be built entirely at Bentley’s Crewe works – and the first to be offered with a pressed steel body-shell as standard. Coach-built cars were still available, but the stately Mark VI – one of the best sellers in Bentley history - signalled a sea-change in vehicle production.

1950 - 1959

 

BY 1952 THE POPULAR BENTLEY MARK VI WAS IN NEED OF A FACELIFT.  

Whether by luck or brilliant judgement, the decisions that led to its final modifications, its styling and its designation pointed to the extraordinary renaissance of the brand some fifty years later, though no-one involved could possibly have guessed it at the time.
The new R-Type closely resembled its forebear, the Mark VI, but was technically improved. However, from it came the R-Type Continental. This iconic aluminium-bodied coupé, with higher gearing and lightweight, streamlined coachwork by H.J. Mulliner, its ability to run up to 100mph in third gear, with a top speed of just under 120mph, made it the fastest four-seater car in the world. Very quickly it earned a reputation as the ultimate in high-speed luxury.
Despite the success of the R-Type’s undeniable originality, the rationalisation of new Bentley and Rolls-Royce models continued with inexorable efficiency. By 1955 they were sharing identical technology, with the Bentley S Series differing from the Silver Cloud only in external styling.
For ten long years, only the Continental variant with its coach-built two- and four-door versions broke with the styling of the Rolls-Royce range.

 1960 - 1969
A DECADE OF INTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND A DRAMATICALLY REDESIGNED PRODUCTION LINE AT CREWE IN 1965 PRODUCED THE BENTLEY T SERIES ALONG WITH ITS ROLLS-ROYCE SIBLING, THE SILVER SHADOW.

With all-round independent suspension, four-wheel disc brakes and air-conditioning, it was the first Bentley built with a monocoque chassis and bodyshell.
As gracious as it was in design and as smooth as it was in performance, the T Series was seen by Bentley enthusiasts as the final betrayal of the marque’s sporting heritage. The guardians of the Bentley flame were no longer to be found in the factory. That duty had been taken up by the thousands of Bentley owners who kept their hopes and dreams alive in the fellowship of the BDC, the Bentley Drivers Club. 
Their loyalty to the winged B was vital. As sales of the new cars continued to decline, the performance credentials that Bentley had fought so hard to win on the racetrack were now a distant and fading memory among luxury car buyers around the world. Bentley sales were in decline, and but for the ambition of the new owners to enter the U.S. market with a car that had broader market appeal, and the evident loyalty of the BDC, there would inevitably have been more than one occasion when Rolls-Royce considered stopping Bentley production altogether.

 

1970 - 1979

Looking back on the clone years of the seventies, with the Bentley’s superb heritage reduced to little more than a badge on an ageing Rolls-Royce, Bentley sales teetered below ten percent of total production.

Motoring historians are unanimous in regarding Bentley’s survival as something of a miracle.
The introduction of the T2 and the Bentley Corniche drophead coupe did little to restore the public’s faith in the marque. Neither did the liquidation of Rolls-Royce when the development costs of its world beating RB211 jet engine soared over budget.

The tide would eventually turn, of course. And while it is easy in hindsight to be critical of the parent company’s handling of the Bentley brand during these parlous years, the long association with Rolls-Royce and its coach-building partners such as Mulliner would leave an indelible mark of refined luxury in Bentley’s DNA. W.O. himself would have approved of this side of the equation.

Now all Bentley needed was the power to perform.

1980 - 1989

 

It was a Rolls-Royce in everything but name. But it was a name that gave a flicker of hope to the resurgence of the true spirit of Bentley.

Launched in tandem with the updated 1980 Silver Spirit was the Bentley Mulsanne, named after the corner at Le Mans, at the end of the longest straight on any racetrack in the world. Rolls-Royce had hitherto eschewed all references to Bentley’s racing past; the naming of the Mulsanne was the last roll of the marketing dice.
It was, indeed, the tiniest of flickers - but it soon ignited a search for the kind of power under the bonnet that could deliver to the promise of the badge. With its V8 turbocharged to 300bhp, the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo became the surprise hit of the 1982 Geneva Motor Show. Here was a 2200kg car that reached 60mph in just 7 seconds. With a top speed of 135mph it was the fastest Bentley in history, and faster even than the likes of the Daimler Double Six, the Aston Martin Lagonda and Ferrari’s 365GT4.
An overwhelmingly positive public response led to more differentiation. The 1984 Bentley Eight boasted a chrome wire-mesh grille that recalled the racing Bentleys of the 1920s. The 1985 Bentley Turbo R firmly re-established the Bentley marque, the R designation standing for road holding. Glowing press reports included the following from Motor, “If the best car in the world comes out of Crewe, it wears a Bentley badge, not a Rolls-Royce one.”
By 1989 half of the cars emerging from Crewe were Bentleys. Ten years after the introduction of the Mulsanne Turbo, Bentley would outsell Rolls-Royce two-to-one.

 2000 - 2009

IF CERTAIN SCEPTICS STILL DOUBTED VOLKSWAGEN’S COMMITMENT TO THE TRUE VALUES OF THE BENTLEY BRAND, THEY WERE SOON SILENCED.
Massive investment in the Crewe facility substantiated their intention to maintain a thoroughly British bloodline. And the announcement of a new racing programme reawakened its spirit of daring endeavour.
As Bentley engineers took up the daunting challenge of designing and producing a race car to take on the best in the world, two other equally daunting programmes were underway at Crewe.
The first was the bespoke design of a Bentley State Limousine, commissioned through Bentley Mulliner, for none other than HM The Queen on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee.
The second was the secretly guarded development of the so-called MSB, a “mid-size Bentley” that would consolidate once and for all the breadth and strength of the Bentley revival.
As the 600bhp Bentley Speed 8 began to make its mark at Le Mans, the MSB – now openly referred to as the GT Coupe– was being put through its own gruelling tests.
The stunning Continental GT was unveiled at Paris in the same glorious year, attracting 3200 deposits eight months before the first one would be delivered.
In 2003 Bentley Speed 8’s finished third and fourth at the 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida. And then, almost eighty years since their debut, Bentley finished first and second at the most famous circuit of all, Le Mans.
The launch of the Limited Edition Bentley Arnage Limousine was followed in 2005 by the Bentley Continental Flying Spur. And the Bentley Arnage Drophead Coupe was confirmed for production as the exquisite Azure, and one year later the Continental GTC was announced. The revival was complete.
The Arnage and Azure combine personally-commissioned Mulliner refinement with extraordinary power. The Continental range, now including the brilliantly-received Convertible, introduced Bentley to an entirely new audience of enthusiasts eager to experience the true meaning of Grand Touring.
2007 saw the continuation of Bentley’s grand touring heritage with the introduction of the Bentley Brooklands; inspired by the adventures of the ‘Bentley Boys’ at the world renowned British racetrack in the 1920’s. A strictly limited production of only 550, the luxury four-seater coupe reaches 60mph in just 5 seconds, supporting Bentley’s vision in creating world-class exclusive coupes.
The automotive industry has found itself at the centre of the growing global environmental debate and facing new challenges – climate change and renewable fuel sources. At the 2008 Geneva Auto Salon, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley Chairman and Chief Executive, announced an ambitious strategy to cut CO2 emissions and significantly improve fuel economy across the Bentley range by 2012.
The extreme Bentley – Continental Supersports – debuted at the very same Auto Salon; the fastest, most powerful Bentley ever, reaffirmed the environmental commitment as Bentley’s first FlexFuel performance car.
2009 marks a major milestone in Bentley’s history, in celebration of 90 years of Bentley Motors, the all-new Bentley Mulsanne, a formidable accumulation of 90 years experience, joins the range and will be unveiled in all its splendour on 16th August at Pebble Beach.
The Bentley Mulsanne embraces the highest standard of modern technology, while remaining true to W.O. Bentley’s ambitions, carrying the traditions of craftsmanship and ultimate luxury forward into the future of Bentley.
The next chapters of Bentley history have yet to be written. But we can predict with some confidence that they will include luminous headlines in the motoring press and heartfelt praise from Bentley lovers the world over.

Source: Bentleymotors.com

Posted in: Bentley,History