The 8-litre Bentley is the car considered by many to be Walter Owen Bentley's masterpiece, as well as one of the finest examples of the thoroughbred motorcar. It followed a succession of Bentley automobiles whose impact on the motoring world is held in high esteem to this day and is all the more amazing considering the twelve short years of the company's existence.

The 8-litre Bentley is the car considered by many to be Walter Owen Bentley's masterpiece, as well as one of the finest examples of the thoroughbred motorcar. It followed a succession of Bentley automobiles whose impact on the motoring world is held in high esteem to this day and is all the more amazing considering the twelve short years of the company's existence.

"It is becoming increasingly rare to find a vintage Bentley of any chassis type that was originally supplied to its first retail purchaser as a closed car. So many cars have been converted to open bodies in the style of the various Vanden Plas, LeMans-type open tourers. Locating an original unmodified closed car, photographing and riding in it is a rare treat. Our featured car is exactly that, especially given its history and the circumstances that might have led to its original body being scrapped and replaced with another."

Bentley has a longer association with turbocharged cars than you might think. Andrew English drives the earliest example of the breed.

Bought in 1928, by an Australian marine engineer names John 'Jumbo' Goddard, for the princely sum of £350 (about £15,000 today), the car was altered by Goddard in 1954 when he replaced the original three-litre engine with a Bentley eight-litre motor he had bought second-hand after the war. The car was also given a new sporty body and hydraulic brakes — a necessity considering the astonishing speed the vehicle was now capable of.

Collector cars are not unlike their owners in that they can progress through stages in their lives. A car has a birth, active life, middle age and maturity, then old age. Then, sadly most finally expire after a long and active life, many with ignominious ends. The subject car, YM5044, went through such a progression and even had a burial. Forty years after its interment, it then rose like Lazarus from the grave to again join the living...

The 1930 Bentley Mayfair Coupe's 8-liter engine, capable of 100 mph, was designed to knock Rolls-Royce off its pedestal.

The 8-litre was built to be the last word in comfortable saloons of sporting performance and those cars that now have sports bodies have acquired them at a later date; the cars were built in batches of 25 and sent off to the various coachbuilders in chassis form. Since the majority of the coachworks of the era were in the north-west corner of London, Bentley's Cricklewood works was well placed… Of the 100-odd 8-litres built, some 23 were given H. J. Mulliner bodies; the next most popular choice was Thrupp and Maberley.

Contrast in size of car can certainly be claimed for this week's subject, an 8-litre Bentley, when it is recalled that last week an Austin Seven "special" held the T.O.S.C. stage. The Bentley has a roof, it will be observed, but I feel that there will be few if any dissentients on this score as regards its sports car status.

Father had moved from a 4½-litre Bentley to the 6½ and now, fancying an 8, acquired GY7850. Well, in those days, the road tax was 25/- per horse-power (RAC rating) and the 8-litre was rated at 45.01hp, which made the annual tax £56/5/- or £15/9/5d per quarter.

Among new models none will cause greater interest at the Show than the 8-litre Bentley, the latest addition to that make's range.

The invitation to go out in Forrest Lycett's 8-litre last month, before the famous car is stored for an indefinite period in some warm, safe garage, was accepted with as much keen anticipation as if we had never been in the car before, for motoring of this calibre is quite unique, and particularly so in these disturbed times. The 8-litre is accepted in most circles as the highest-performance road car in existence, and even those who should know it better are heard to express the opinion that it is a very considerably hotted-up version of the Bentley marque.

Just about two years ago I had a motoring experience, which really merited that oft-misused word "unforgettable." I joined Forrest Lycett for a Brooklands test of his 8-litre Bentley, a car known, I suppose, to every enthusiast who is familiar with English speed trials and hill-climbs. During the course of the afternoon, times were recorded which had never been equalled by any other car which The Motor has road-tested.

To be prominent amongst the large cars at Olympia: the new 8-litre Bentley. The engine is a fine six-cylinder unit with an overhead camshaft. A feature of the transmission is a novel, silent four-forward gearbox.

The 8-litre Bentley has the largest engine of any British car.

This car was bought new in 1931 as a chassis but the parts were mainly machined in 1930, so it is now some thirty years of age. Fitted with a two-seater body it was used in the beginning for long-distance Continental touring but, from the mid-thirties onwards, when the owner was already over 50, it began to play an increasingly prominent part in the many short sprints which were a strong feature of most competitions at that time. Fired with the desire to excel, Lycett had many modifications made by the late McKenzie and eventually the complete car weighed less than the original chassis; engine output had been raised by over a third, and braking and general road holding considerably improved.

At the time of the Olympia Show the 8-litre Bentley was introduced in such a way as to stress to the full the fact that it was designed to be that rather mysterious type of vehicle which is generally known as a town carriage; and undoubtedly a great many people who listened to that announcement went away under the impression that performance was the very last thing on which the car based its claim to consideration — so much so that certain people undoubtedly believed that the performance was sacrificed to obtain other possibilities.

The word "unique" is sadly overworked; so much so that people have fallen into the error of coupling it with qualifications such as "very" or "almost." The dictionary definition is as follows: "single in its kind of excellence." In this sense and without qualification the new 8-litre Bentley is a unique car… The top-gear speed range of which this car is capable with closed coachwork is in itself very unusual, the figures being a minimum of 6 m.p.h. and a maximum of 104 m.p.h. Additionally, the car runs very quietly, is docile and flexible in traffic, holds the road admirably and Is possessed of exceedingly good brakes.

For some weeks rumour has been busy with the name Bentley in connection with a new chassis. We are now able to give the first details and illustration of this 1931 model in the following preliminary announcement. A more extensive description will appear in a later issue of The Motor… In designing the new chassis the aim of the Bentley engineers has been to secure an exceptional degree of refinement, silence and comfort.

A few great cars of the past stand right out in the thoughts of the enthusiast. One of these is certainly the 8-litre Bentley, which was built specifically to give a very high performance, and at the same time to be quiet and docile. It is of tremendous interest to anyone so minded to discover the condition today of such a car, and the opportunity arose through the Service Department, Bentley Motors (1931). Ltd., Kingsbury Works. Kingsbury Road, Hendon, London. N.W.9, which offers a selection of reconditioned second-hand Bentley cars for sale, including the old types.

The query as to which is the fastest sports car in the world, using as a definition a model which can be run in. say, the T.T. or the Le Mans races, and yet prove tractable in daily use, opens up an interesting topic for debate. There are many Continental cars which could lay claim to the honour, and at least one of them, shown at Earls Court, was reputed to have a maximum speed of 140 m.p.h… We have, of course, no British car in production which will approach this speed but, on the basis of a measured performance both at Brooklands and in numerous speed trials, we have one vehicle which seems capable of worthily upholding our honour. It is something of a solemn thought to realise that it is an eight-year-old design. We refer, of course, to Mr. Forrest Lycett's famous 8-litre sports Bentley.