Bentley's DFP

• 
• 
• 

Were it not for the later success of one particular individual, the French DFP light car would probably be just another name in the compendium of forgotten Edwardian marques. Fortune, however, guaranteed DFP’s remembrance by introducing to it one Walter Owen Bentley. W O joined DFP’s British concessionaires as a partner in 1911 but within a few weeks, he and his brother Horace Milner Bentley had bought the agency and sought to develop the DFP 12/15hp as a sporting model. Once a Brooklands class record and a Tourist Trophy entry had drawn attention to the marque, Bentley & Bentley managed to sell DFPs to figures from show business, industry and the royal family.

The 1913 Special two-seater featured here has a particularly special history. Used as works runaround, it was driven all the way to France by a pair of DFP mechanics who wanted to cheer on John Duff, who was racing his Bentley Three Litre in the inaugural 1923 Le Mans. After being discovered in use as a stationary engine in 1949, it was restored by and exhibited at the Montagu Motor Museum. It was at Beaulieu that one of the same mechanics rediscovered the car and was able to positively identify it as that which had delivered his 17-year-old self to the action of Le Mans in its first year.

David Burgess-Wise presents the charming tale of this pretty workhorse in The Automobile, now on sale.

Photographs by Tony Baker.

Make a comment, ask a question, give your opinion, share additional information or start a discussion by filling in the fields below.