Back to back: Bentley Special or special Bentley?

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We don’t want to tire you too much with the age-old discussion about turning old cars into specials, but the duo seen here does kind of provoke the question once again. Bonhams Auctioneers will be selling the two of them during the Goodwood Members’ Meeting on April 10th and we must say we did like the looks of that Bentley Sports Special, which they call an R-type 4½-Litre (is that even right?). Yes, it is registered as a 1953 car and so officially shouldn’t even make it to this page, but we wanted to include it, if only for its very 1930s looks alone.

1953 Bentley R-Type 4½-Litre Sports Special

Mind you, this car is said to come with a brand new (short) chassis and front cross member as well as new wire wheels and aluminium body, so we guess the mechanicals and registration will be the only vintage stuff here — the rest was completed in 2021, and the car has only covered 10 miles since. From the sales blurb: “The beautifully crafted R-Type-based special offered here is the work of its owner, a highly skilled and experienced engineer, whose previous projects include converting a Ferrari 250 GTE into the much more desirable 250 GT SWB.” Ah! That’s experience in the opening of cans of worms…

But all kidding aside, it does look good. Estimated to sell at between £90,000 and £110,000, it may now be relatively little for what does indeed look very much like a period racing special. To quote the auctioneer once again: “Over recent decades prices fetched by genuine Vintage-era Bentleys have risen to levels well beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest.”

1925 Bentley 3-Litre Open Tourer

However, another Bentley that they do offer in the same sale isn’t even that much more expensive. Estimated at between £140,000 and £170,000, the 1925 Bentley 3-Litre Open Tourer may have been rebodied at one stage as a Vanden Plas-style tourer and supposedly uses a replacement engine but it is quite a lot closer to the real deal. The car’s history seems to be interesting, too, with early logbooks and hand-written sheets from a 1960s owner; older MoTs and V5s available. The car was used as a fire tender by Brooklands Aviation at Sywell Aerodrome in the 1930s, giving a whole new meaning to the model designation Bentley Brooklands…

Words Jeroen Booij. Pictures Bonhams Auctioneers.

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