Bentley Boys
Encyclopedia
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
s to victory in the 1920s and kept the marque's reputation for high performance alive. In 1925, as the marque foundered, Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato
Woolf Barnato
Joel Woolf Barnato was a British financier and racing driver, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1920s. He achieved three consecutive wins out of three entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.-Early life:...
bought the company, leading to the creation of the famous supercharged Bentley Blower
Bentley Blower
The Bentley 4½ Litre is a British sports car built by Bentley Motors. Replacing the Bentley 3 Litre, it is famous for epitomizing prewar British motor racing and for its popular slogan "there's no replacement for displacement", created by the founder of Bentley, Walter Owen Bentley...
car.
The Bentley Boys included:
- Woolf "Babe" BarnatoWoolf BarnatoJoel Woolf Barnato was a British financier and racing driver, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1920s. He achieved three consecutive wins out of three entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.-Early life:...
, heir to Kimberley diamond magnate Barney BarnatoBarney BarnatoBarney Barnato , born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later gold mining, in South Africa from the 1870s.-Background:... - Dr. J. Dudley "Benjy" BenjafieldDudley BenjafieldJoseph Dudley Benjafield, MD was born on 6 August 1887, in Edmonton, London, UK. He attended the University of London and received his MD from University College Hospital in 1912...
- Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin
- Dale Bourne
- Frank ClementFrank Clement (racing driver)Frank Clement was a British racing driver who, along with Canadian John Duff, won the 1924 24 Hours of Le Mans. Part of the "Bentley Boys", Clement was recruited by W.O. Bentley as a test driver for Bentley Motors. He was chosen by the company to drive in the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans in ...
- S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis, automotive journalist, Sports Editor of The AutocarAutocarAutocar is a weekly British automobile magazine published by Haymarket Motoring Publications Ltd. It refers to itself as "The World's oldest car magazine".-History:...
- John DuffJohn DuffJohn Francis Duff was a Canadian racecar driver who won many races and has been inducted in the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. He was one of only two Canadians who raced and won on England’s famous Brooklands Motor Course. The other, Kay Petre, is already an honoured member of the CMHF...
- George Duller, steeplechaserSteeplechase (horse racing)The steeplechase is a form of horse racing and derives its name from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside...
- Clive DunfeeClive DunfeeBeresford Clive Dunfee was a British racing driver, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1930s, who was killed in a dramatic accident at Brooklands...
- Jack Dunfee
- Baron Andre d’Erlanger, playboy
- Clive Gallop, engineer
- Glen KidstonGlen KidstonGeorge Pearson Glen Kidston was a record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver from Britain. He was a member of the well known Bentley Boys of the late 1920s, and possibly the wealthiest of that already wealthy set. His father, A.G. Kidston, was a grandson of the original A.G...
, aviatorAviatorAn aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne... - Bertie Kensington Moir
- Bernard RubinBernard RubinBernard Rubin was a British racing driver and pilot who was a member of the "Bentley Boys" team at the Bentley Motor Company and winner of the 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans.-Personal life:...
, pearl fishery magnate - Jean ChassagneJean ChassagneJean Chassagne was a French racecar driver active in the years surrounding World War I. Chassagne finished third in the 1913 French Grand Prix on a Sunbeam...
, French racing driver
Thanks to the dedication of this group to serious racing, the company, located at Cricklewood
Cricklewood
Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...
, north London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, was noted for its four consecutive victories at the 24 hours of Le Mans
24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...
from 1927 to 1930. Their greatest competitor at the time, Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
, whose lightweight, elegant, but fragile creations contrasted with the Bentley's rugged reliability and durability, referred to them as "the world's fastest lorries".
In March 1930, during the Blue Train Races
Blue Train Races
The Blue Train Races were a series of record-breaking attempts between automobiles and trains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the Le Train Bleu, a train that ran between Calais and the French Riviera...
, Woolf Barnato raised the stakes on Rover and its Rover Light Six
Rover Light Six
The Rover Light Six was a mid-size formal saloon produced from 1927 through to 1932 by the Rover Company of Coventry.- Overview :The Rover Light Six was one of the first Rover cars manufactured under the aegis of Spencer and Maurice Wilks who introduced new management practices and engineering...
having raced and beat Le Train Bleu
Le Train Bleu
Le Train Bleu , officially the Calais-Mediterranée Express, was a luxury French night express train which operated from 1922 to 2007. It gained international fame as the preferred train of wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera in the two decades before World War II...
for the first time, to better that record with his 6½ Litre Bentley Speed Six
Bentley Speed Six
The regular Bentley 6½ Litre and the high-performance Bentley Speed Six were Bentley cars in production from 1926 to 1930. They were created out of the desire for more engine power by Walter Owen Bentley by adding two cylinders to the straight-4 engine used in his Bentley 4½ Litre car. The Speed...
on a bet of 100 Pound Sterling. He drove against the train from Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, then by ferry to Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and finally London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, travelling on public highways, and won. The H. J. Mulliner
H. J. Mulliner & Co.
H. J. Mulliner & Co. was a well-known British coachbuilder operating at Chiswick in West London.The Mulliner family can trace their coachbuilding history back to 1760, building coaches for the Royal Mail in Northampton....
-bodied formal saloon he drove during the race, as well as a streamlined fastback "Sportsman Coupe" by Gurney Nutting
J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited
J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited was an English firm of bespoke coachbuilders specialising in sporting bodies founded in 1918 as a new enterprise by a Croydon firm of builders and joiners of the same name...
delivered to him on 21 May 1930 became known as the Blue Train Bentley
Blue Train Bentley
The term Blue Train Bentley refers to two Bentley automobiles, based on the high-performance 6½ litre Bentley Speed Six model, which became known for their owner Woolf Barnato's involvement in the Blue Train Races of 1930.- Overview :...
s. The "Sportsman Coupe" has been erroneously referred to as being the car that raced the Blue Train, while in fact Barnato named it in memory of his race.
A great deal of Barnato's fortune went to keeping Bentley afloat after he became chairman in 1925; but the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
destroyed demand for the company's expensive products, and it was finally sold off to Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
in 1931.