Bentley

GB, 1920 to date

(1) Bentley Motors Ltd, Cricklewood, London N.W.2., 1920 – 1931

(2) Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd, Derby, 1933 – 1945

(3) Bentley Motors (1931 Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, 1946 to date

W.O. Bentley was already well-known as the importer of the D.F.P. car, a pioneer of aluminium pistons and a designer of successful rotary aircraft engines when his first Bentley 3-litre car for sale appeared at the 1919 London Show. This Bentley model, indelibly imprinted in the layman’s mind as the archetype of the Vintage sports car, had a long-stroke (80x149mm) single ohc engine with fixed head and dual magneto ignition developing about 70bhp in its early form. The Bentley 3-litre was at its best in long-distance events; a team of Bentley 3-litres with flat radiators (the only instance of this apart from the same year’s Indianapolis car) finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the 1922 T.T., and the model accounted for the first two of the marque’s Le Mans wins, those of Duff/ Clement in 1924 and Davis/ Benjafield in 1927 on the badly damaged ‘Bentley Old No. 7’ – one of the legends of motor-racin history. Up to 1929 1.630 3-litres Bentley motorcars were made. 1924 saw the introduction of front wheel brakes and also the famous sports four-seater ‘Bentley Speed Model’ by Vanden Plas. Bentley cars are popularly known by the colours of the enamel on their radiator badges – ‘Bentley Red Label’ signifying a Speed Model short-chassis 3-litre, ‘Bentley Blue Label’ the early short, and long chassis which could and sometimes did carry limousine coachwork, and ‘Bentley Green Label’, a special 100mph Bentley type made  in very small numbers.

In 1926 the Bentley company made a bid for the carriage trade with a big Bentley 6½-ltre six for sale on similar lines. A chassis cost £1.450, but the Bentley image made no impression in this market. However, the model was developed into the 180bhp ‘Bentley Speed 6’ of 1929, considered by many to be the best of the old-school Bentleys for sale, and responsible for the firm’s last two Le Mans wins – Barnato/ Clement in 1929, and Barnato/Kidston in 1930. In 1927 the Bentley 3-litre was developed into the Bentley 4½-litre, still with four cylinder, but with a 100bhp engine which was giving 130bhp by the time production ended. This admirable car could exceed 90mph in standard form, and was used by Barnato and Rubin to win LeMans in 1928. A supercharged version was listed in 1930; it had 182bhp, and did not have the approval of Bentley himself, but it was an excellent if thirsty road car, and won Sir Henry Birkin an unexpected 2nd place in the formule libre French G.P. of 1930. Bentley finances were always shaky, and even Woolf Barnato’s aid of 1927 did not last long; the Bentley company went down in the early summer of 1931 to the accompaniment of a splendid gesture – a 220bhp ohc Bentley 8-litre six, made in two wheelbase lengths, 12ft and 13ft. Only 100 of these eight-litres Bentleys were made, plus 50 examples of a rather uninspired inlet over exhaust valve 4-litre car.

Napier made an unsuccessful bid for the assets of the Bentley company, but were beaten by Rolls-Royce, who introduced their version of the Bentley at Olympia in 1933. This was an entirely different type, based on Derby’s contemporary 3.7-litre ohv push-rod ’20-25’. It had a 4-speed synchromesh gearbox, Rolls-Royce servo brakes, and sold for £1.460 with saloon bodywork. In this form, it could reach 90mph and merited its slogan ‘The Silent Sports Car’. It was not raced, of course, apart from E.R. Hall’s three consecutive second places in the T.T. (1934, 1935 and 1936). By 1936 it had grown into a Bentley 4¼-litre, the increase of capacity being necessitated by the rising weight of bespoke coachwork. An overdrive gearbox was standardized in 1939, and the 1940 Bentley Mk V had independent front suspension, though only a handful were made because of the war. The Derby Bentley car’s swansong was a creditable 6th place by H.S.F. Hay at Le Mans in 1949, on a ten-year-old machine with 60.000 road miles behind it. Cylinder capacity was unchanged at 4.257cc in 1946, but independent front suspension, was standard, and Bentely, like Rolls-Royce, had gone over to inlet over exhaust valves. Prices for the Bentley motorcars for sale rose from £2.997 to £4.474 in 1951 for the standard steel saloon, the first Rolls-Royce product to have a regular series-produced factory body.

Thereafter the Rolls-Royce and Bentley identities merges, though in 1952 there was a special ‘Bentley Continental’ version of the latter with fastback 2-door saloon body by H.J. Mulliner which gave 120mph on a 3.077:1 top gear. Capacity went up to 4.6 litres in 1952 and 4.9 litres in 1955. Automatic transmissions, already optional, became standard that year; power-assisted steering and air conditioning followed In 1957, and for 1960 the old six at long last gave way to a 6.2-litre V8 with full overhead valves, by which time only the radiator style distinguished one make from the other. The ‘Bentley Continental’ with separate chassis was discontinued at the end of 1966; 1972 Bentleys were the 6.745cc Bentley T saloon and the Bentley Corniche 2-door saloon and convertible. Even the price differential between the two sister makes was now a thing of the past, the Bentley T-series selling for the same £10.455 as the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Vulcan

GB, 1902 – 1928

(1) Vulcan Motor Manufacturing and Engineering Co Ltd, Southport, Lancs., 1902 – 1906

(2) Vulcan Motor and Engineering Co Ltd, Southport, Lancs., 1906 – 1928

The Vulcan car firm was better known for commercial vehicles. Private Vulcan cars stemmed from experiments conducted in the 1897-1899 period by the brothers Thomas and Joseph Hampson. A belt-driven single-cylinder voiturette Vulcan car with lateral radiators was shown in 1902, being replaced a year later by a 6hp Vulcan car with armoured wood frame, mechanically-operated inlet valves, and shaft drive. This Vulcan car was listed at only £105, and this Vulcan car was soon followed by a 10hp twin, also T-headed but with a steel frame, selling for £200. 4-cylinder Vulcan cars of 12 and 16hp, still modestly priced, were available in 1905, while the biggest 1906 Vulcan cars, with capacities of 3.1- and 5.2-litres, had gate change. No 2-cylinder Vulcan cars were catalogued after 1908, but a year previously Vulcan cars had joined the ranks of 6-cylinder manufacturers with a 4.8-litre T-headed machine featuring dual ignition and cone clutch, at £600 for a Vulcan car chassis. Unlike other makers, Vulcan cars retained their interest in this type, which Vulcan car had acquired a 4-speed box and had grown to 6-litres by 1908, and the 1909 Vulcan car range consisted of four 4-cylinder cars and the six, all shaft-driven and still with T-heads; the smallest Vulcan car, rated at 12hp, had a 3-speed gearbox and worm drive. A new 3.6-litre six Vulcan car with unit gearbox and worm drive followed in 1911, along with an L-head 2.4-litre fifteen. Worm drive was standardized on the 1912 Vulcan cars, when the bigger Vulcan cars had T-heads, and a 1.8-litre, 2-cylinder with an Aster engine was offered. All but the smallest Vulcan car had detachable wheels as standard in 1913, and by the outbreak of World War 1 the Vulcan car company was well established with a range of solidly-built Vulcan cars: a 2.4-litre 10/15, a 2.6-litre 15.9, and a 3-litre monobloc 15/20 Vulcan car at £375. All these Vulcan cars had L-heads and bull-nose radiators, though the similarly styled six retained the older Vulcan car configuration. A 1½-litre Vulcanette with a 3-speed rear-axle gearbox and full electrical equipment was announced for 1915 but the war intervened.

After 1918 the Vulcan car company concentrated increasingly on trucks, and a brief association with the Harper Bean Group (1919-1920) did no good to finances. Some odd experiments by Vulcan cars included a worm-drive 3½-litre V8 tourer Vulcan car intended to sell for £625 (1919), and two Vulcan cars in 1922 with Howard sleeve-valve engines, a big 3.6-litre sports-touring four Vulcan car and a 10hp 1.4-litre flat-twin listed at £315. However, none of these Vulcan cars reached the public, the regular Vulcan car lines being a 1.8-litre ohv 12 and a 2.6-litre sv 16/20, both with Dorman engines. There was also a conservative 20hp Vulcan carmodel with the Vulcan car company’s own 3.3-litre sv fixed-head engine and 4-speed separate gearbox, this Vulcan car was selling for £850 in 1921; by this time flat radiators were again being used on Vulcan cars. The Vulcan 20 was available to military order with full wireless equipment in 1923, in which year C.B. Wardman effected a liaison of Vulcan cars and Lea-Francis. The two companies pooled their dealer network, Vulcan cars became responsible for certain Lea-Francis power units and bodies, and Lea-Francis made gear and steering boxes for Vulcan cars. A 1½-litre sv Dorman-engined Vulcan 12 was listed at £295 in 1925, followed a year later by an ohv worm-driven derivative, also with Dorman engine, and looking very like a Lea-Francis. 4-wheel brakes were available on Vulcan cars in 1925 and standardized in 1926. Last of the line Vulcan cars were the 14/40 and 16/60, with the disastrous twin ohc 6-cylinder engines of their own make. Short-chassis Vulcan cars were worm-driven, but bevel drive was adopted for long-chassis versions. Vulcan cars wore artillery wheels, but were otherwise identical to their Lea-Francis counterparts which Vulcan cars were made alongside them at Southport. Not many of these Vulcan cars were made, and after 1928 only commercial vehicles were produced. The Vulcan car firm subsequently amalgamated with Tilling-Stevens and thus were abrorbed into the Rootes Group after World War 2. Truck production ceased in 1953.

US, 1913 – 1914

(1) Vulcan Motor Car Co, Painesville, Ohio, 1913

(2) Vulcan Manufacturing Co, Painesville, Ohio, 1913 – 1914

This Vulcan car was a cleanly-designed light car with a 27hp 4-cylinder engine. A two-seater speedster Vulcan car on an 8ft 9in wheelbase with electric lights sold for $750. A five-seater version of this Vulcan car with the same engine, but on a longer wheelbase, cost $850.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, GMN    

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com