A mechanic took customer service to a new level by going on a 15,000-mile round trip from London to Mongolia - so he could carry out a 10-minute repair job. Bentley specialist William Medcalf took two flights and then drove through the desert for more than seven hours to help customer Bill Cleyndert. Mr Cleyndert was taking part in the Peking to Paris motor rally when a wheel bearing failed on his 1924 Bentley Super Sports.

We sample Bentley's first race-winning car, the 1921 EXP 2, alongside the company's 2003 Le Mans winner and the current Continental GT3 racer It is 95 years since a Bentley won its first motor race, and we were lucky to go for a spin in that very car at the site of its victory, the banked circuit at Brooklands. Frank Clement, WO Bentley’s development engineer and racing driver, won the Junior Sprint Handicap at Brooklands on May 16, 1921 in EXP 2 which was built in 1919 at the company’s original Cricklewood workshop. Joining in the celebrations were some more recent victorious Bentleys, the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Speed 8 and the latest Continental GT3, which takes to the track this weekend at Silverstone.

It is often said that the term “supercar” was coined to describe the Lamborghini Miura, which burst into the motoring world exactly 50 years ago, but that belief is as incorrect as it is commonly held. That is not to say that the Miura wasn’t a watershed, because it did set the template for every supercar since. It wasn’t the first rear-mid-engined sports car for the road – that honour goes to the Matra Djet – but the combination of that sonorous, transversely mounted 4.0-litre V12 and drop-dead gorgeous looks by Bertone seared the Miura into the public psyche. But the first supercar? Think again.

There are many movies all about cars, with a small amount of plot, others featuring long dramatic car chases, but there are also many movies and TV shows where the choice of car helps to define the character of the hero or villain, highlight the fashions of the time the film was made or even transform and otherwise ordinary film into an iconic one... We have put together a list of Vintage Bentley cars that have been in showbiz...

Although the combined urban and rural population of Timaru District in New Zealand was less than 60,000, from 1928 to 2010, it was home to 19 Bentleys which arrived and departed at different times, each one owned, pampered and motored enthusiastically. During the nine years between 1976 and 1985 there were seven Bentleys of varied styles and pedigrees in the district for the whole of that time.

Despite the legends that surround the original Bentley cars—those sometimes called “W.O.s” after the company founder—a great portion of those near 90-year-old cars are in fine running order today. Enthusiast motoring is these cars’ raison d’être, and the faithful who maintain them take pride in upholding the founder’s ideal.

You will find a new write-up on the home page of this web site, titled Restoration Update, that introduces you to our Restoration section, if you are not already familiar with it. Still in its infancy, we are making progress to become the world's largest source of Vintage Bentley restoration information. You are all invited to contribute information.

Sammy himself was never old, he had simply lived a very long time and his chassis and engine, in the last three or four years, had been showing serious signs of wear. He died of a heart attack at his Guildford flat on January 9 (1981), his 94th birthday. He had had a good long life, and to anyone remotely interested in cars, an enviable one...

It was in January 1919 that the original Bentley Motors company was formed, and in October of that year when the very first overhead-camshaft 3-litre engine first burst into life. Since then, in more than 60 years of corporate existence, Bentleys have been built at Cricklewood. Derby and Crewe, in many forms, and under several masters. In those 60 years, too, everything about the marque has changed completely... The marque which was once the most prestigious of all British 'vintage' machines, is now virtually forgotten.

Having joined Bentley Motors Ltd as an apprentice in 1928 and stayed on as a salesman until the Company was bought by Rolls-Royce, I drove all the models when they were new. Later, in the 1930s, I was demonstrating and selling all sorts of cars for an agency in London. I often tested these cars at Brooklands and many of them were "used" Bentleys sold to the old Bentley clientele. Since then I have owned and raced several other Bentleys and driven every model. So in one way or another I feel that I know the marque, whether it be from Cricklewood, Derby, or Crewe.

If you scorn all that's glossy and novel
And treat fashion with lofty disdain;
If your house is a half-timbered hovel
And you like going out in the rain;
If your money's pre-decimal mintage
And you only read mouldy old tracts -
Then your Bentley is probably vintage
And your head's full of Technical Facts.

It is some considerable time since a vintage Bentley came into this series. The example now selected is thoroughly "special" and a decidedly live specimen. At all events it was live to good effect during last year's sprint events, in the hands of its builder and owner, Maurice Brierley, of Speldhurst, Kent. With a cut-down 3-litre chassis and a 4 1/2-litre engine a decidedly potent piece of machinery has been evolved and the car handles very well indeed...

In the series of three articles on "Restoring Old time Bentleys" which were published in "The Motor" at the beginning of 1943, I attempted to deal with most of the points, which are likely to puzzle the amateur owner during an overhaul. During the past two and a half years I have received a large number of letters from Bentley owners. They raised questions of general interest. Therefore I propose to go over some of the past ground in a different manner and raise some fresh topics as well; I will also give a little more information about the Speed Six.

Bentley cars of the 1920s have been called many things in various countries. For example, "classic", "Cricklewood" W.O. Bentleys, but today the title Vintage Bentley is almost universally used and understood.

The first intimation of the existence of CK 8172 was when my friend and colleague, John Hay, returned from a deviously-routed official journey with the news that a quaint Bentley, believed to be a 3-litre, was residing in a breaker's yard at Bradford. A journey was obviously imperative, so we went to hold an inquest on the remains, and found the engine and gearbox complete and apparently undamaged...

In the following article Peter Robertson-Roger gives some hitherto unpublished information about his two supercharged, 4 1/2-litre Bentleys. They were No. 1 and 4 of the late Sir Henry Birkin's famous team, which was financed by the Hon. Dorothy Paget, and raced during the 1929-31 seasons.

So many readers are interested in the Bentley marque, and as every owner of an old-school Bentley we meet seems to enthusiastically read Motor Sport we feel that some notes on improving the performance of the old-model Bentleys may prove of interest. We are indebted to Mr. L. G. McKenzie, the well known Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialist, for the information that follows.

The first car to catch our eye was a special 1982 8-litre Bentley modified for a friend of the late Sir Henry Birkin and fitted with a Corsica four-seater open body designed by McKenzie expressly to meet this client's requirements. This is a truly imposing motor-car… Another interesting McKenzie Bentley is a 4-litre chassis with the 8-litre braking system and a 6 1/2-litre Speed Six engine. Mr. McKenzie has a 4 1/2-litre Bentley of his own which is subjected to experimental modification in the interests of clients, and which he drove in the Bentley Drivers' Handicap at Brooklands last year.

The writer went to the 1926 show without a bias of any description but simply requiring a genuine sports car, which would have the wearing qualities of a staid tourer. The number of suitable vehicles, however, was soon narrowed down and a road test gave the decision in favour of the 3-litre Bentley… About this time, following their success at Le Mans, Bentleys put their famous 4 1/2-litre on the market, and having obtained such good service from the 3-litre we decided to sample one of the new models. A trial was followed by arranging a part exchange with Jack Withers, and we duly became the owner of a 4 1/2-litre, not without a tinge of regret at parting from our faithful first Bentley.

Considerable interest is naturally centred upon the supercharged 4 1/2-litre car which makes its first appearance at this Show, though it has already behind it a remarkable history in the competition world... After its introduction last year the 6 1/2-litre six-cylinder speed model appears in revised form. It is the type of car, which won the Le Mans 24-hour Race this year...

This model of 4 1/2 litre Bentley (1930) ran only once in Grand Prix racing, but on this solitary appearance in the French Grand Prix of 1930 Sir H. R. S. Birkin achieved second place, and although beaten by a 2-litre Type 35 Bugatti, he, in turn, beat a large number of similar models. There is, therefore, every justification for including the Bentley in these articles as one of the links in the chain of motor-racing history.

Amongst vintage cars, the Bentley has ever inspired enthusiasm in its owners and respect in those not so fortunate. Quite a good trade was done up to the war in rebuilding these fine old machines, clothing them in new bodywork and tuning them up to give more than their pristine performance... Although many are still running in their original form, and others have already been rebuilt by enthusiasts either for ordinary touring or for competition work, many may still be picked up fairly cheaply in breakers' yards by those lucky enough to find them. Both those already running old-school Bentleys and the people seeking chassis to rebuild may find these detailed notes on overhauling them of some service.

Your contributor "Vizor" is certainly in error in doubting whether Bentley Motors (1931), Ltd., have ever put modern bodies on the old-type 4 1/2 litre chassis, as he will soon realise if he consults any issue of your excellent journal for any week of 1936. Some time after the new company was formed several 3- and 4 1/2-litre chassis were completely reconditioned and fitted with new bodies, and later still complete cars were built up from the very large quantity of spares then in existence.

Recollections of Life as a "Hand" With the Old Company — the Height of Youthful Ambition Attained by an Enthusiast — "Upon leaving school I entered the works of Bentley Motors, Ltd., at Cricklewood — but that bare statement of the beginning of a career in the motor trade hardly does justice to my feelings at the time. The very name Bentley meant more to me than any other name in the world; for years I had followed the fortunes of the marque and had studied the specifications of the cars (when I should have studied other and duller subjects!), and my enthusiasm was such that I was even known to my schoolfellows by the nickname of "Bentley"."

I am surprised to learn that supercharged Bentleys were competing in 1928, but agree with Mr. Bennett that, generally speaking, large and especially heavy cars are relatively slow over road circuits. In this connection the 8-litre Bentley's Shelsley time of 44.08 secs. may be dismissed as a "potted" effort on the part of car and driver which could not be sustained throughout the length of a race… Whether or not the manufacturers regarded the 8-litre Bentley as fast a road car as the supercharged 4 1/2-litre is an inside secret. Personally, in view of its 12-ft. wheelbase, I would say they did not, but the point is immaterial, for the 8-litre was not in production at the time of the events mentioned. Indeed, it did not make its debut until after Bentleys' officially announced retirement from racing. (F. Lycett)

A 20-year pictorial summary.

On the Bentley stand the centre of interest is obviously the new 8-litre six-cylinder, the biggest British car and the latest design of a firm which, more than any other, has carried the British colours to success in open and international competition.

The Bentley coupe is of Weymnnn construction, with thick fabric or tole souple for the main panelling and aluminium for the scuttle and top of the tall. The upper side and back panelling consists of a foundation of perforated steel secured at the edges by a special moulding, which grips the steel and, at the same time, allows it to lie flush with the surrounding wooden framework. This steel panelling is non-drumming, it gives strength without undue weight and ensures the preservation of the dome-shaped contours of the back corners of the roof. The steel is padded before the outer covering is stretched on, which is effected by means of a single lengthwise seam at each side. The dummy outside joints are hand-forged.

In view of their successes in sporting events during the current year it is not really surprising that Bentley Motors, Ltd., should have decided that but few changes are necessary for 1930 in their 4½ litre and "Big Six" chassis. The previous range is, however, to be extended by marketing the supercharged 4½ litre chassis of the type used by Capt. Birkin in the Double Twelve-hour event at Brooklands and at the Dublin and Belfast races. The chassis price of this model has been fixed at £1,475.

A particularly fine example of the British coachbuilder's art is the beautiful ivory and black fixed cabriolet de ville which is being shown at the Paris Salon by Thrupp and Maberly, Ltd… It has many unique features, a new note being struck by the front wings and undershields which are not only made in one piece, but are so constructed that the automatic side lamps actually form part of the wings, while the undershield, which curves from under the doors to a point well beneath the car, is provided with numerous louvres which do much to improve the appearance of this part of the car. The wings, incidentally, are of the new ribbed type, which are exceedingly attractive.

Meticulous care ensures that a decades-old car will last for decades to come. When caring for their vehicles, however, collector car owners face a very unique set of circumstances, and one of the questions every adoring owner asks is, "What oil should I put into my engine?

In the 1930 period, when there was a much larger number of big cars on the market, chassis were built, as a matter of course, to be fitted with standard bodywork by the manufacturers, or with coachwork produced by specialized firms. Within the performance requirement of the average buyer, this system of chassis-plus-bodywork was perfectly satisfactory, but when one came to a luxury car such as the Bentley, the situation was markedly different; to produce the best results, the tout ensemble in excellence had to be matched to a much closer degree, especially with closed bodywork.

Almost invariably the history of a great automobile involves the story of an individual who desires to produce a car with a unique characteristic or feature. W.O. Bentley's company existed for just twelve years (1919 to 1931), yet within this short span it produced automobiles whose stamina, speed and excellence, combined with the exploits of the drivers who raced them, created a legend based more on fact than myth.

One of the first people to specialise in selling, restoring and racing just on emarque, Stanley Mann has seen the Bentley business changes enormously. Gordon Cruickshank talks to him about Crinklewood cars, and W.O. Bentley's view of history.

Aficionado, guru, salesman and racer — Stanley Mann was born for Bentleys. Vintage Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, 8 Litre racer and Mother Gun Speed Six Brooklands car. Plus an Aston Martin DB6 and a Land-Rover Discovery.

Bentley Drivers Club members got together at the Virginia International Raceway in May 2003 for a racing weekend with the Vintage Sports Car Club.... All had fun, no engines were blown, and the racing was a perfect prelude to the tours to follow.

Now in the process of handing over the reigns of a successful family business to his son, James Pearce of Sussex, England reflects on nearly 40 years of restoring exotic cars. Years of laughter and tears... successes and trials — more than one comedy of errors.

Standing in front of a 3 Litre Bentley at the Kensington Gardens Concours, a young fellow engaged me in conversation concerning the differences between this car and one that I had purchased a year prior to that time.