1929 Bentley 4½ litre

This is a photograph that I took before the start of the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1979.

It's the1929 Bentley 4½ litre of Mr J J Denby and the programme of the event said this about the car:

174        Mr J. J. Denby, Kirkham Abbey, York.

              1929 Bentley 4½ litre open tourer. 25 h.p. 4-cylinder.

Tfhis car is used all the year round and has appeared on B.B.C. North once or twice. Has been on location for various films. Maintained by the owner for the last 16 years.

1931 Bentley 4½ litre

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the Taylor Woodrow Pre-War Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1931 Bentley 4½ litre of Paul Benton which was driven in the race by Soames Langton. Despite being called a 4½ litre car, the capacity of the 4-cylinder inline engine of the Bentley 4½ is only 4,398cc. The DVLA record of GT8771 says that the car has been untaxed since December 1995.

Peter & Clive Morley

I took this photograph at Hislop's chicane during the Boulogne Trophy race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

Leading is Clive Morley in a 1928 Bentley 4½ litre with his father Peter behind in a 1929 Bentley 3/4½ litre - a 3 litre chassis with a 4½ litre engine.

Bentley 4½ litre

This car competed in the two MicroProse Spirit of Speed Pre-War Sports Car Races that took place on Saturday 31 July and Sunday 1 August at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1999.

It's a Stanley Mann Racing 1931 supercharged Bentley 4½ litre and was driven in the races, the programme says, by Prof Dr Michael Rudnig and Stanley Mann. This car, chassis #MS3931 was originally built with a Weymann saloon body by Gurney Nutting, and the first owner was a James F Bryson. It was rebuilt in 1993/95 and fitted with the Le Mans replica body seen above.

Bentley 4½ litre

This car was one of the competitors at the Aston Martin Owners Club's AMOC Racing meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017 in what the programme of the event called a Pre-War Team Challenge race. 

It's the 1928 4½ litre Bentley of  Guy Northam, although the actual capacity of the engine is 4,398cc. The 4½ litre was produced from 1927 to 1931,  with a supercharged model (popularly known as the Blower Bentley) introduced in 1929.

The Vintage Bentleys website gives the chassis number as RN3042 and the engine number as PM3263.

Here's Guy Northam at Druids Corner during the morning practice session.....

....and here he is at Britten's chicane during the race.

Bentleys

Any meeting organised by the Vintage Sports Car Club is always going to attract a good number of Bentleys, and the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 was no exception.

The car nearest the camera is the 1929 Bentley 4½ litre Le Mans driven in Sunday's hour-long Motor Racing Legends Pre-war Sports Cars race by Stanley Mann and Michael Rudnig. The red car next to that is possibly the 1927 supercharged Bentley 3 litre driven by Joe and Rachel Singer in the same race. The silver car looks like the 1927 Bentley 3/8 litre of Adam Singer that he shared with Stanley Mann in Saturday's 2 hour-long VSCC White House Memorial Pre-war Sports Car Team Relay Race. On 9 August 2017 I showed a photograph of this car at Donington Park in 2006. The next car appears to have three racing numbers and seems to be the 1928 Bentley 3/4½ litre Le Mans driven in the Relay Race by Joseph Singer as number 171 and Stuart Fearnside as number 172. It may also be the car shared by Adam Singer and Stuart Fearnside in Sunday's hour-long race - that was number 14, but is shown in the programme of the event as a 1927 car, not 1928. The racing number on the last car appears to be a 21, and if so it's the 1929 supercharged Bentley 4½ litre of Martin Overington that he drove in the Sunday hour-long race.