1929 Bentley Napier

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It's the 1929 Bentley Napier which was driven in the Historic Trophy race by David Llewellyn. This is a vehicle that he and Peter Morley created in 1968 using a 24 litre Napier Sea Lion engine which has a 'W' configuration - two banks of four cylinders in a 'V' with a third upright bank between them. The car was originally built on a Sunbeam chassis but after an accident was rebuilt using the chassis of a 1929 8 litre Bentley. The nose of the car was later altered to resemble that of the Napier Railton. On the right the blue car number 7 is the 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus' of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay. This car has the 1,488cc supercharged version of the 6-cylinder ERA engine and it was originally one of the cars in the White Mouse Stable of Siam's Prince Chula and driven by his cousin, Prince Birabongse, known simply as 'Bira'.