Lots of the roars from the ‘roaring Twenties’ got here from the again of a Bentley 3 Litre. It’s a machine affiliated with flapping skirts, jazz, and daredevil aviation pioneers. Its very identify conjures up ideas of the brash and carefree spirit of the inter-war years. With good purpose, too – these vehicles had been exceptionally well-known in interval and stay so right this moment. They dominated motorsport of their heyday with outright wins on the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1924 and once more in 1927, amongst their crowning achievements.

That second win is probably essentially the most well-known. After the pair of main works Bentley 4 1/2 Litre vehicles had been worn out in an enormous crash, the next 3 Litre known as ‘Previous Quantity 7’ obtained off with lighter, but nonetheless vital, injury. It took the lead and was nursed to the tip of the race. Later, battle-scarred and bent Previous 7 was rolled into the Savoy Lodge eating room throughout its personal victory dinner. That’s one thing Bentley would pay homage to at an analogous occasion in 2003, with its new Pace 8 the visitor of honour.

I noticed and pictured this singular 3 Litre on the Concours of Class in 2020. It might not have been a Le Mans winner, however it’s nonetheless a particular manufacturing unit mannequin constructed to have fun Bentley‘s success on the 1922 Isle of Man Vacationer Trophy. It’s additionally a particularly uncommon survivor, retaining lots of its unique bodywork (Vanden Plas), body and mechanical elements. It left WO Bentley’s works in Cricklewood, North London in September 1926 as a Purple Label ‘Pace’ chassis. Pace fashions sit on a cut-down body with a 9ft 9 1/2-inch wheelbase and are powered by a high-compression engine, driving the rear wheels by a close-ratio A-type transmission.

Registered YR 509 in London, its first proprietor Eric Loder quickly took it touring within the South of France, the place it was photographed in Cannes for an article in The Autocar. It was initially completed in silver over maroon, and was repainted in inexperienced within the mid-Thirties. Having survived the warfare unscathed, it was purchased within the Fifties by well-known Bentley fanatic Phillip Mann, who used the automobile to take its present proprietor to high school. The automobile spent a while within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies within the US, and was repatriated within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. The newest of its two restorations was carried out to an exceptionally excessive and sympathetic commonplace by classic automobile specialist Thornley Kelham.

ENGINE

3.0-litre, inline-four, water-cooled, OHC, 80bhp twin ‘sloper’ SU carbs

CONFIGURATION

Entrance engine, four-speed handbook transmission, rear-wheel drive, separate metal chassis, aluminium bodywork by Vanden Plas on an ash body, semi-elliptic leaf springs all spherical with Hartford shock absorbers, rear drum brake