1924 Bentley 3 Litre

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

With a rich continuous history that includes a stint in India during the 1920s and a cameo role on the big screen in the 50’s, this Bentley 3 Litre Red Label is a very attractive example of this popular British vintageant.

The service records for short chassis number 488 show that it was sold new to Major EA Fitzgerald of Mayfair, London and bodied by Weyman as a saloon, and that it returned to the factory in July 1924 to have twin SU carburettors fitted. 

By 1929, the Bentley was clearly in India because its records include a list of parts that were to be sent to Karrier Motors Ltd in Bombay. During that same year, it was sold to RE Allen, an RAF officer whose address was given first as ‘c/o Karrier Motors’ and then as ‘c/o RAF Club, Piccadilly’.

The Bentley returned to the UK and was once again registered here in May 1931. Having started life as a Weymann saloon, it was then fitted with a Vanden Plas-style four-seater tourer body.

The logbooks record a series of owners through the 1930s, and in May 1939 the Bentley was acquired by David Southwell of St Margarets, on the south-west fringes of London. The logbook includes a stamp dated 13 September 1939 from the Petroleum Department, which had been set up in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak of war.

The next owner is listed as being Linwood Mertens, who bought the Bentley in May 1944. By the end of that decade, it had passed to the owner of an aeronautical engineering firm whose son later said that the Bentley was in a ‘very shabby state’.

Having been rebuilt, the car appeared in the 1951 film Mister Drake’s Duck, being driven by leading actor Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. During the 1960s, the Bentley was bought jointly by brothers Stephen and James Lee, who had it rebuilt by HJK Townshend at Elmdown Vintage Automobiles at the then-considerable cost of £3166.

The Lees later sold the Bentley to an enthusiast who stopped James while he was driving it down Grantham High Street and immediately offered him £7000. Subsequent owners included Paul Weldon and Kenneth Tams during the 1970s, and in 1980 it was taken on a Bentley Drivers Club tour to Le Mans. In 2001, it was treated to a full mechanical rebuild, including an engine overhaul, by Clive Oliver.

This very handsome and much-loved Bentley sporting 3 Litre is now being offered for sale in extremely original specification, and it exudes the sort of charm for which these early cars are rightly renowned.

MODEL HISTORY  

From victory at Le Mans to the patronage of royalty and aristocracy, it was the 3 Litre that laid the foundations for the Bentley marque. The first model to be offered by WO Bentley’s eponymous new company from its launch in 1919, it used an engine that was developed in-house and which took inspiration from pre-war Mercedes Grand Prix designs. The four-cylinder monobloc unit was advanced for its time and featured 16 valves, an overhead camshaft and twin plugs per cylinder. 

Various combinations of chassis and engine tune were offered from the beginning of 3 Litre production in 1921 through to its replacement by the 4.5 Litre late 1927. The majority of the 1622 cars that left the Cricklewood factory were the Blue Label model, which was offered with a wheelbase of either 9ft 9.5in or 10ft 10in, and had a single Smiths carburettor.

The Red Label Speed model used only the shorter 9ft 9.5in chassis and featured a higher-compression engine running on twin ‘sloper’ SU carburettors. And finally there was the Green Label Supersports model, which was built in tiny numbers on a 9ft chassis and was guaranteed to offer 100mph performance.

Motor racing was part of the Bentley story from the very beginning, and in 1923 Frank Clement and John Duff drove the latter’s 3 Litre in the first running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. They returned in 1924 and won outright – the first of Bentley’s six victories at La Sarthe, and the first inkling of the ‘Bentley Boys’ legend that would take hold throughout that decade. 

The Bentley 3 Litre remains among the most coveted of all vintage cars, its combination of robust engineering and sporting pedigree deservedly giving it iconic status.