Over the past thirty plus years in the collector car hobby, I have been fortunate to have attended many vintage motor car tours and shows. I have been particularly interested in Vintage Bentley and Rolls-Royce 40/50 hp. ("Silver Ghost") cars. They are right at the top of the list of vintage motorcars that are still enjoyed "on the road." Today, some 90 to 100 years after their initial manufacture dates, they are still being driven and enjoyed by a very active and vital segment of collector car owners around the world. The respective organizations catering to these two marques are amongst the most active of the entire hobby and I am very fortunate to be able to participate with them.

Having owned a vintage Bentley since 1992 I have made many friends in the Bentley hobby around the world. I have seen, enjoyed and photographed many vintage cars in the US and the UK at the various events I have attended. Over time, it has occurred to me that members in the United States possess a considerable number of "matching number — original bodied cars." As a consequence I decided to seek out these cars in an attempt to document them for the benefit of the BDC archives and the enjoyment of the membership. They have survived intact after 80 or 90 years following years of being driven as once new, then used cars, then "beaters." They were then sometimes abandoned and left to decay before being re-discovered and brought back to life. They deserve and should be recognized and revealed for the enjoyment of all like-minded aficionados.

From time-to-time I will submit such articles to the Review as I meet with the owners, photograph and document their cars. I have relied on, and want to acknowledge, the very kind, generous and knowledgeable assistance of Dr. Tim Houlding in providing some of the historical information and photographs. I also relied on, as well, the information contained in the book, "Bentley, the Vintage Years, 1919 - 1931" authored by Michael Hay.

My first submission and the "sacrificial lamb" for these articles is my own car, an early 6½, "sports model" (as described in the factory records) also termed the "Big Bentley." I understand that the 11' chassis was the chassis of choice for the team 6-cylinder cars due to handling and weight advantages when compared to the longer wheelbase chassis.

The desirability of the 11' sports chassis by hobbyists for conversion to racing specification or Vanden Plas replicas of one type or another is the primary reason the 11 footers have lost their original bodies. The modifications were made in favor of light weight racing coachwork. Tim Houlding advises that TB2542 is the last 11' sports chassis remaining carrying its original coachwork.

TB2542 still has is original engine, number FW2605 and, according to Michael Hay's book, is the 42nd car delivered to a retail customer. She was a Mrs. Cholmeley who, according to the factory records, resided at Lushill, Highworth, Wiltshire.

The car was delivered on September 18, 1926 from Gaffikin Wilkinson & Co. Ltd., 8 Dover St., W1 after H. J. Mulliner completed the erection of a one-off "Simplex Coupe" (Mulliner's term) body. The coachwork is a four-light drop head coupe with a dickey seat. It is referred to as a "¾ folding head coupe" in the Bentley factory records.

The following photograph is a view of TB2542 after completion of the coachwork by Mulliner prior to delivery to the customer. Note that a number plate has not yet been obtained for the car. The number YR633 was later assigned and a V-5 for this number is still with the car. The original paint scheme was purportedly pea green (we discovered this during its restoration) over brown. There was no indication of the color of the hides. The canvas was most likely black.

The unique design has traditional coachwork construction with aluminum paneling over seasoned ash with steel wings. The top mechanism is another matter, however. The car has four lights all of which lower into the coachwork so as to provide full protection from the elements with hood up or full open car touring. With the hood lowered it has nearly a "fold-flat" appearance.

I assumed until the 2005/6 restoration that this was a Mulliner design in its entirety. Only when the body came off and the hood mechanism was removed and disassembled did I discover that the hood mechanism was a "bought-in" item and contained a hidden manufacturer's plate. It is a "Beatonson Patent Head," number 4643 patented by Beaton & Son, London NW 1C.

It is an ingenious affair providing for not only the folding of the top bows, but the folding of the metal window frames and channels for all four windows. It allows for the complete collapse of the lot while accomplishing the "fold-flat" appearance. It is so complex, yet sturdy, that Jim and David Pearce would only disassemble and restore one side at a time while retaining the other side complete and assembled as a pattern for the reassembly process.

The door windows utilize the traditional chain operated window winder assemblies while the rear windows incorporate "Pullman-type" leather pull straps fitted into little fitted cubbies in the side paneling to keep the straps from flopping about when the hood is down. The window frames for the doors provide for the front window frame to be fixed to the door in the vertical position which then nest into the rear of the windscreen frames while the rearward door window frames simply fold forward onto the door capping rail. It is a very clever and tidy arrangement and I have yet to see a similar installation on any other car although there must be others, I'm sure.

Although this may be heresy to the "never raise the hood under any circumstances" bunch, I have had the hood up in very cold and/or wet weather and the car is very weather tight and warm — yes I said warm! The interior is draft free and there is virtually no wind noise at speeds up to 70 mph. There are little door and window seals throughout to keep it very civilized. There is no need for a heater in cold weather driving with some decent clothing. In fact, the windows need to be kept open a bit to keep the interior from becoming too warm. A very civilized arrangement for three-season touring.

The windscreen is flat and fixed with fixed triangular front quarter windows. The seat is a very comfortable and wide bench seat with separate bottom cushions. There are large map pockets fitted to the doors with full instrumentation to the dashboard. All of the instruments are very rare and are as originally supplied with the chassis. The speedo, oil pressure gauge and main light switch have the "Big Bentley" script on the instrument faces. There are auxiliary switches which operate the dashboard lamps (2), the interior light (fixed to the rear hood frame and very handy at night) and the spot lamp. Side cowl vents provide warm weather ventilation.

The dickey is large enough for two average size adults although we remove the seat bottom and use the rear for luggage when touring. I like to describe the body as a two door all weather coupe with dickey.

As an early Big Six, the car came with a tapered radiator and corresponding tapered bulkhead. The bonnet originally supplied was "plain" with doors on both sides which could be opened to provide for ventilation of the engine compartment and the dynamo was mounted to the rear of the overhead camshaft.

On 5 June, 1928 at 24,449 miles, the factory records show that TB2542 was the recipient of factory changes to the mechanicals and coachwork relating to the change from a cam-driven dynamo to the more common crankshaft-driven one. The records note the following changes: "1928 Head Lamps. 1928 mods. fitted. Rad, dynamo, Bonnet Sides, Camshaft damper, Dashboard blanking plate." Hence the later-appearing dynamo through the bottom of the radiator, the louvered bonnet vents and the large round plate fixed to the passenger side of the firewall where the Smith's dynamo originally protruded through the bulkhead. These 1928 changes apparently were post-sale updates to this early 6½ car that replicated production design changes made to the production cars commencing with the cars shown at the 1927 motor show.

At 30,790 miles, on 14 November, 1928 the Dewandre vacuum brake servo was retro-fitted, again as an update to bring the car up to the 1927 specifications. The only 1927 spec. change not made to the car was the removal of the nearside mag. so as to replace it with the Delco-Remy distributor as provided on the later production 6-cylinder cars. A "heavy-type" front axle was also fitted.

The mechanicals of the car are the same as they were after the 1928 mods. The only other change was the fitting of a 3.84 diff. replacing the 4.16 "stump puller" (changed as part of the 1976 restoration in South Africa) as originally provided by the factory. The carburetor is the original Smiths 5-jet which, although certainly not economical (10 US mpg) with the 3.84 diff., certainly gives fine touring performance. It retains its "C" box and twin magneto ignition system utilizing contra-rotating ML-GR 6's. There are two side-mounted spares as when new and a trunk rack at the rear, a corner of which appears in the original photograph.

The owner history of the car is: 18 Sep. 1926 - Mrs. Cholmeley; Apr. 1927 - H.R.G. Colclough, Virginia Water; Mar. 1931 - O.J. Battine, London; Aug. 1935 - R.C. Brooks, Ashley Vale, Bristol; 1937 - Desmond Baumann Capetown, South Africa; 1938 - J.H. Mitchell, Capetown, South Africa; 1938 Tony Whale-Smith, Rhodesia; Mike Simpkins, Rusape, Rhodesia; Feb. 64 - K. Anthony White, Capetown South Africa; Jul. 1977 - Col. R. MacDonald-Hall, Essex; 1983 - Ron Player, Dover, Kent; May 1988 - Helmut Peitz, Lisbon, Portugal; 2001 - Peter Hageman, Seattle, Washington, USA; Mar. 2002 - Matthew Sysak, Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, USA.

The car, in the ownership of its English owners, had accumulated approximately 80,000 miles on the clock when it was exported to South Africa. After going through owners in South Africa, the car was campaigned including hill climbs. Eventually, TB2542 was abandoned in a field on a farm near Rusape, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The appearance of the car at that time was rough to say the least as can be seen in the following photo. Notice how the wings had been modified by the time this photo was taken. They were changed back to the much more attractive original shape by Tony White during his 1976 restoration.

In 1964, Tony White bought the car, sight unseen, from Tony Whale-Smith. It was not running and had to be put on an open rail car for transport to South Africa. After Tony White restored the car (c. 1976) he found the car's performance not to his liking. He found the performance of a 4½ more suitable. TB2542 as it appeared following the White restoration:

Consequently, Tony sold the car, via Stanley Mann, to Col. MacDonald-Hall in 1976. TB2542 was re-registered in the UK. With the assistance of the BDC, was re-assigned its original registration number, YR 633.

I have the period advertisements for both Stanley Mann and Coys from 1976 as offered in Thoroughbred & Classis Cars for May and July. I also have copies of numerous bills incurred by the Colonel for the maintenance of the car on which he lavished substantial sums of money.

The Colonel and subsequent owners in the UK (Ron Player) and Portugal (Helmut Peitz) continued to maintain TB2542 until it was sold via a Bonhams auction in 2001. The 2001 purchaser was a dealer in vintage Bentleys, Mr. Peter Hageman who imported the car into the United States in 2001.

Peter had the car re-painted in a single-tone claret while maintaining the brown canvas and the plum interior. He removed the Grebel head lamps and TB2542's appearance when I purchased the car in March of 2002 was:

After my acquisition of TB2542, oil pressure issues dictated the necessity of serious mechanical work on the engine. To confirm my diagnosis, I brought Tony Fabian of Blackmore Engineering at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex to the US to evaluate the cars mechanicals.

I already had very good experience with Tony as it was he who rebuilt my 4½ in 1992. We deduced that a comprehensive engine, gearbox and chassis rebuild was necessary. This effort including replacing the crankshaft, pistons, rods, big and small ends and three-throw drive along with every other system and sub-system. His excellent work was completed in 2003.

In March of 2004, the car was involved in an accident which required Tony to again weave his magic. Jim and David Pearce performed a complete, body-off restoration. It was at this point that I replaced the head lamps with the current Grebel units similar to those which Tony White installed on the car during the 1976 restoration. It's a great look and the Grebel lamps are so good looking.

Following the 1½ year restoration, we flew to the UK to join our fellow BDC members at Rousham House for the concour and 70th anniversary celebration. We then drove approximately 1,100 miles on a 10-day tour of York, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and the Cotswolds before returning to the south then home. We left the car with the Pearces for fettling some minor bits before the car left the UK for home.

She is a wonderful car to tour with. There is plenty of power, something on the order of 150 bhp. The assisted brakes have the initial braking effort of a modern car but one has to be careful not to overheat them as they suffer fade from overheating. Sustained use of all mechanical braking systems are subject to this issue.

The effectiveness of the vacuum assist was exemplified when the engine stalled approaching the ferry across one of the lakes on our tour and the increase in braking effort was enormous — we almost got very very wet.

6-cylnder cars have the reputation for very heavy steering. TB2542, according to all of those who have driven her is very nicely balanced and very light for a 6½. She's not as light as my old 4½ but not nearly as heavy as the 8 liters I have driven. On the twisty bits, she can actually be thrown around with some confidence, for an 81 year-old 6-cylinder car.

And, not lastly, there is that very comfy cabin in foul weather. Well…………. we put up our umbrellas when it rains, don't we?

TB2542 was repatriated in July of 2006 and I have driven the car approximately 900 miles since with no problems. TB2542 is now a dark non-metallic blue over black with black canvas and claret interior. The car as it now appears (the photos are by David Pearce):

We are registered for the 2007 North American Vintage Bentley Meet in May of 2007 at Cooperstown, New York and we plan to drive there and back. We are also registered for the 2007 Vintage Bentley Tour of South Africa. I hope to meet up with Tony White at Capetown so that he can again enjoy seeing TB2542 and we can compare notes.

TB2542 has certainly had an interesting 81-year life and came close to an ignominious end in that field in Rhodesia. Were it not for Tony White, it is very possible that the car would have been lost forever. The vintage Bentley movement would have been the poorer as the result. I owe Tony a debt of gratitude.

She has risen like the fabled Phoenix and shines in her present glory. Once more to please those who view and drive her.