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Young World
B is for Bentley
Text and pictures by RANJIT LAL
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After the war, Bentley got busy developing a racing car. And by 1920, they had a three litre, 85 bhp monster roaring down the tracks.
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Making a name for themselves...
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, gave his top secret agent one: a 4½ litre `Blower' Bentley with a supercharger by Amberst Villiers. Later, Bond shifted to a Mark II Bentley Continental, and only in the films was he made to drive Aston Martins — and other things. But the story of story, hopefully will have a happy ending, given all the strange things that happen in the automobile world.
Walter Owen Bentley, the founder of the company, was a born engineer, and though his first experience was with trains and the railways, his heart was in the internal combustion engine, and in racing motorcycles. In 1912, his family bought a small firm importing what were called D.F.P. sports cars from France. At the D.F.P. factory, Bentley noticed an aluminium paperweight, and he wondered if this lightweight metal could be used in engines. One development led to another and soon the first two aluminium pistons made by Bentley found themselves in service, in of all things, a Sopwith Camel fighter plane that was used in World War I.
Bentley 4.25 litre Drophead...
After the war, Bentley got busy developing a racing car, and by 1920, a three litre, 85 bhp monster was roaring down the tracks at 80 mph. There was no looking back after this, and soon Bentleys were scorching the racetracks in America and Europe. But the Bentleys really made a name for themselves at Le Mans in France. The first Bentley to roar around this famous track was a private entry in 1923, and it finished fourth. The next year it won the gruelling 24 hour endurance race. This so encouraged Bentley that he entered factory cars the next year. And then, for four consecutive years, between 1927 and 1930, Bentleys stormed ahead of the pack every time, in 1929 claiming the first four positions. The drivers of these monstrous and magnificent 3, 4½, 6½, and 4½ blown (with supercharger) Bentleys were popularly called the `Bentley Boys' and their cars sported tall stately radiators and tough leather straps to keep the long bonnets down. Ironically, the most famous Bentley emerging from the stable was developed by one of these Bentley Boys, Sir Henry `Tim' Birkin; it was a 240 bhp-supercharged monster, the legendary `Blower' Bentley. Ironically, it never won a race! And Bentley himself was against supercharging — he preferred making his engines bigger than force-feeding them with gas and air (which is what a supercharger does) to make them more powerful.
But trouble was looming ahead. By 1931, Bentley was virtually broke and up for sale. Napier of France was interested (they made huge 6.5 and 8 litre machines) in buying the company, but then, a mysterious bidder calling itself the "British Equitable Trust Ltd", outbid the competition and bought Bentley over. At a party Mrs. Bentley overheard that the people behind this mysterious trust were none other than Rolls Royce. The famous British firm had been afraid that had Napier bought Bentley, they would have had to face extremely tough competition from the cars such a venture would produce!
Power and performance...
For Walter Owen Bentley this was virtually the beginning of the end. As an employee of Rolls-Royce Ltd, he was severely hamstrung — he was never allowed to design a car, which frankly appeared to be quite a dog-in-the manger attitude by the famous firm. Unhappy, he left the company in 1935. The first Bentley produced by Rolls Royce rolled out in 1935 and became known inevitably, as the Rolls-Bentley. And gradually, Bentley sort of morphed into Rolls Royce; from ferocious racecars they turned into sporty Rolls-Royces and soon there was nothing to distinguish the two except the design of the radiators. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this state of affairs is that at least Rolls-Royce was acknowledged as makers of the `best cars in the world', so in that sense, Bentley was in good hands. (Imagine if the company had been bought by a firm making knock-kneed khataras!) And gradually, Bentley carved out a select clientele for itself — people who wanted the best but didn't want to show off about it, bought Bentleys instead of Rolls-Royces. Unfortunately, there were far more takers for Rolls than for Bentleys, for the `if you've got it, flaunt it' school of thought was easily in the majority. And gradually, Bentley's fearsome sporting image began fading away.
Turbo R... for people who want the best.
This, till the 1980s, when the Bentley Mulsanne (named after the famous `straight' at Let Mans) roared out, further boosted by the turbocharged Mulsanne Turbo in 1982, a 300 bhp, and 135 mph luxury super car with neck-snapping acceleration. Once again people began buying Bentleys for their performance. At present, the company is owned by Volkswagen of Germany (the automobile business is a funny business; here's the pride of British auto engineering being run by the beetle makers!) and they're not doing too badly. They have a model range that is quite distinct (for the most) from that of Rolls-Royce, and after a gap of 71 years, finished third in the Le Mans race of 2002.
They even produced a special limousine to commemorate the Queen's silver jubilee in May 2002. But alas, I saw a picture of this car on the net, and my first blasphemous thought was, `Mein gott!! It's like a stretch London cab!' Whatever next? A Bentley that drinks diesel?
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