W.O. Bentley made his name as an importer of French DFP sports cars before 1914, and for his BR air-cooled rotary aero-engined designs during it. In 1919 he decided to make a car of his own design.
The 3-litre, first seen at the 1919 Olympia Motor Show, was put into production at a factory near Staples Corner, on London’s North Circular road, and was first sold in 1921: it was the first of a legendary pedigree of locomotive-like British sports cars. Indeed, it is true to say that the 4.5, 6.5 and 8-litre cars are all recognisably descended from the original 3-litre.
Chassis engineering was conventional in every way, but the engine aroused a great deal of interest. Massively built, tall and elegant, the four-cylinder unit was almost unique in having four valves per cylinder, and an overhead camshaft in a non-detachable cylinder head, a layout which gave the Bentley 3-litre a sparkling performance.
Even though Bentley always seemed to be under-capitalised (it came close to bankruptcy at least three times in the 1920s, before the final collapse in 1931) W.O. Bentley himself always found the time and the money to enter his cars in an ambitious programme of races and high-speed record attempts, telling everyone that this would not only improve |
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development, but would also bring valuable publicity. It was the Le Mans 24 Hours race which meant most to Bentley, where lightweight and tuned-up 3-litres won the race in 1923 and 1927. His cars also raced with distinction in the British Tourist Trophy race (second in 1922), and even in the Indianapolis 500, where W.D. Hawkes’s car averaged 81 mph.
The Speed Model, with a tuned-up engine, arrived in 1924, and following the development of the 4.5-litre model (this engine being a technical amalgam of the 3-litre and 6.5-litre ‘six’ units) a number of common parts were specified. There were three distinct sets of gearbox ratios.The original chassis price was £1,100, which was usually raised to about £1,400, depending on the type of bodywork chosen. By any standards this made the Bentley an extremely expensive proposition, so to stimulate sales the ‘Standard’ chassis price dropped to £895 in 1924.
Bentley was so confident of his engineering skills that a five-year warranty was offered for the chassis assembly. Three-litre types were in production for seven years, in several basic forms and in three wheelbase lengths.
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