As each year's racing season draws to a close, it is as well to give a critical glance at its results and notice the features which mark its story, and in. this way it is perhaps opportune to attempt to investigate what 1927 has brought forth. The past year cannot be said to have been brilliantly successful from the motor racing point of view, though it was perhaps better than 1926, but nevertheless it presents certain characteristics which are worth noting.

This year the Annual Inter-University Hill-Climb took place as before, at Ewelme Down, on March 3rd, and resulted in a complete triumph for Cambridge, the scores being 61 to 23. There is no doubt that the Cambridge team were mounted on very much faster machines, as a whole, than their Oxford rivals, and were, in addition, perfectly adequate to handle their swifter vehicles.

EXCELLENT racing was witnessed at Brooklands by a crowd estimated at between 20,000 and 25,000 people on Easter Monday, when the track season commenced with a very successful meeting.

No one could possibly complain about the lack of thrills, for J. D. Barclay almost went over the top and regained control after one of the most remarkable skids ever witnessed on the track, whilst the crowd were also delighted by the wonderful performance of the supercharged Salmson, which driven by Mons. A. Goutte, sprung several surprises by putting up some most astounding lap speeds.

AUGUST 18th, 1928, is a date that should rank high in the history of Motor Car Racing for, as everyone knows, it marked the revival of that one and only British Road Race, the Tourist Trophy. The entries were, considering the circumstances, large, but the withdrawal of the Bentley team was a disappointment to many, especially when one considers the very good chance they had of winning the race, despite the handicap. The withdrawal of the Salmson team caused a certain amount of sorrow to other manufacturers of cars of this size; the Riley people, in particular, were very interested to see how their cars would compare with the French 1,100 c.c. products. For this reason the absence of Scott's Amikar was regretted. However, from an entry list of 57, 44 starters cannot be considered bad.

EXCELLENT weather conditions helped to make the Essex Six-Hours Race the success it undoubtedly was, and a considerable crowd enjoyed a fine day's sport. The entry of forty-six provided a very representative field, with an international flavour, as Italian drivers were competing on Alfa Romeo cars, Campbell and Lord Curzon were on Bugattis, an AustroDaimler team was entered, and a German entry was present in the big 36/220 Mercedes. There were few non-starters, notably Miller's second entry-the Delage to be driven by Clowes, the fourth Alfa Romeo, Leitch's four-seater Lea-Francis, and Major Harvey on his Alvis.

The Junior Car Club who conceived the idea of organising a British twenty-four hour race, deserve all the credit they have been given for taking such a bold step as to run a race of this kind for the first time in the history of British Motor Racing.

The 'adventure' was over some 2,500 km of very well-made roads and took a fairly leisurely 19 days. It was really more of a 'Red Carpet / Grand Hotel Tour' than a rally, but good fun... After five days of culture and general indolence, some serious motoring was in prospect as we headed towards the United Arab Emirates, via a 135 km transit through Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, the Saudis do not seem to like tourists...

There were 20 proper cars on the tour and five of those WOs were from Down Under, we had one 3-litre, a 3/4.5 litre and three 4.5 litres dating from 1925 to 1929. All Australasian cars finished the tour without major mishaps or major mechanical issues... Getting to the start in Canada was the easy bit, and a few reasonably easy days of "only 200+ miles" during the first week through all the fantastic scenery that British Columbia has to offer...

Kurt Furger and co-driver Roger toured Canada and Alaska in Kurt's 4/8-litre in June 2009. "The month of June was selected because it is after the snow melts and before the black flies start biting!!" commented Kurt. Thirty-four Bentleys and one Aston Martin participated covering some 6000 miles in 25 days. The group travelled 400 miles on most days.

One of the problems of having access to Motor and Autocar archives is that research can go on (or ever Take the Birkin Bentley in last month's issue; I mentioned that the bonnet had been used in the 1929 TT and that the underside of the tail still bore the scorch marks of a fire on an outer circuit car. Flipping through the 1929 Motor volume. I came across an article on the construction of that car. The reprinted photographs show how it was done. The frame is made up of spring steel strips; longitudinal strips are anchored to and let into wooden frames at each end and a mass of transverse strips are held on to the main longerons by bent-over H-shaped aluminium clips. This basic shape was then clad in fabric with the usual necessary padding between. Not only was the construction very light but it could be jumped on and would still return to its original shape.

Proverbially there is many an untrue word spoken in all seriousness, but when in 1930 The Autocar described the then new 8-litre Bentley as "not a sports model in any shape or form" the writer could hardly be blamed for failing to foresee that a track-rigged edition (re-styled the Barnato Hassan Special) would later raise the Brooklands lap record to 142.6 m.p.h.. or that later still the same machine would become one of the fastest sports cars on the roads of Britain. 

On June 18 it was twenty years from that famous crash following which a much-tattered Bentley won at Le Mans. Today, looking back at that incident, it seems to both "Benjy" (Dr. J.D. Benafield) and myself as fresh as when it happened; and not even the modifications that the long-bearded old gent with the hour-glass timepiece has power to introduce have made the memory one whit less satisfactory...

The later Bentley deeds at Le Mans have been much celebrated, but one way and another the two men who put Le Mans on the map of England remain almost unsung. J. F. Duff and F. C. Clement were there when the first 24-hour race was run in 1923; their Bentley finished high up, and back they came for more the following year. 

The Bentley Club's Silverstone meeting last Saturday was the ideal of what a club show should be. The very fact that the normal crowd of paying spectators were banned made it a purely friendly and very personal affair reminiscent of the best days of old Brooklands.

The name of Bentley was by no means unknown in the racing world before the first car bearing it ever made its appearance. All followers of the sport in pre-War days remembered "W.O." on his little D.F.P. in the 1914 T.T., and the plucky performance which he put up. When, therefore, directly after the war it became known that he was going to produce a sports car of his own, interest was thoroughly aroused.

To many the book will come as a surprise. Their knowledge of Sir Henry will be confined to seeing him hurtling (there is no other word for it) round Brooklands Track in the single-seater Bentley, or driving with polished brilliance at Belfast or Le Mans in Bentleys and Alfa Romeos. To them the thrill of speed and driving skill appears to in his chief concern, and whether he is driving at home or abroad, in an English car or a foreign machine, does not seem to matter so long as he has a good drive.

One of the finest road races ever staged on the Continent or anywhere else was run over the Sarthe circuit at Le Mans, on the 16th and 17th of June. The Sixth Grand Prix of Endurance and Twenty-Four Hour Race proved again a triumph for British cars, and what was probably the finest exhibition of driving and doggedness ever seen over this course was put up by an Englishman on an English car - Capt. H. R. S. Birkin, on the Bentley No. 3.

The victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race by a 3-litre Bentley is one of which all concerned may feel pretty proud. In England we are able to have no road races at all, and there is nowhere in the country where a race can be held for 24 hours. In spite of this, an English car can go abroad and beat all comers in a race under conditions which our more fortunate continental friends can be much more intimately acquainted with.

Great Britain, represented by three Bentleys, experienced very bad luck in not putting up a better show in this event, held at Le Mans on June 12th and 13th… All three Bentleys performed very well, but two experienced mechanical trouble after 12 and 18 hours respectively...

It was the result of a conversation with Mr. Hillstead, of Bentley Motors, Ltd., during the course of which he enthused about the staying powers of the Bentley car, that I conceived the idea of going for the "double-twelve" record, at that time the accepted "Supreme Test" of endurance.

This, the greatest race for cars in touring trim, took place at Le Mans, starting at 4 p.m. on June 20th, 1925, and finishing 24 hours later… Arriving at the circuit six days before the race, one was immediately impressed by the forward state of the preparations, and, although the course was never officially closed, practice was proceeding more or less continuously night and day; one fears that the people whose houses abutted on the circuit enjoyed but little sleep during this period, as most of the cars engaged had open exhausts, silencing regulations being noticeable by their absence.

Racing, particularly the long-distance variety, is not always solely a matter of driving and making the best of the car's performance. There is always the unexpected mechanical incident, the burst tyre or the minor failure which calls for rapid work and judgment on the part of driver and mechanic. These pictures by The Motor photographers, show some of the "Blower Bentley Boys" tackling such jobs in French sunshine and in British rain.

In describing the racing career of Capt. Woolf ("Babe") Barnato, the historian is impeded by the seeming ease with which he brought off his wins. His run of successes was marred by no crash and scarcely an incident, a marked contrast to the previous Bentley deeds at Le Mans between the initial victory in 1924 and the fantastic win by Old No 7 after the White House crash in 1927. 

Bentleys have been remarkable not only for their fame as a marque but also for the number of individually well-known cars made by the company. Two with outstanding records are shown in these pictures taken by members of "The Motor" photographic staff. Here is Forrest Lycett's remarkable eight-litre competing at Lewes in 1935...

In 1930 Bentley had won the 24-hour race of the l'Automobile Club de l'Ouest three times in succession, but they were making every effort to improve upon this record and to secure their fourth victory. To this end, no fewer than six cars were entered. The works team was three 6 1/2 litre six-cylinder models driven by Barnato-Kidston, Davis-Dun fee and Clement-Watney. Backing them up were three 4 1/2 litre supercharged models then owned by the Hon. Dorothy Paget, which had been built at Sir Henry Birkin's place at Welwyn Garden City. The drivers of these cars were Birkin-Chassagne, Jack Dunfee-J. D. Benjafield and Harcourt Wood-G. Ramponi.

Le Mans this year provided more thrills than it has ever done in the past. Indeed, I am not sure that it was not the most exciting race of any kind to be held for at least five years… The bonnet was never lifted, throughout the race, on No. 4, the winning Bentley — a wonderful testimony to the engine's reliability.

This year the race took on an entirely fresh character. So far Bentleys have had it all their own way for a number of years. The result was that few foreign makes could be persuaded to race against them, and a sort of inferiority complex germinated in the minds of the French, although the race was held in their country. "Why enter," they would ask, "when Bentleys are sure to win? They are unbeatable on the Sarthe circuit!"

Many times in the long and thrilling history of motor racing a great triumph has been marred by a great tragedy. The magnificent success of the British cars in the Junior Car Club's Double-Twelve Hour Race at Brooklands last Friday and Saturday was offset by a deplorable accident in which a competitor and a spectator lost their lives and many other people were more or less seriously injured.

Beautiful workmanship, magnificent driving and, above all, the most minute preparation enabled the Bentley team to pull off the double victory. For this year, not content with covering the biggest distance in the 4 hours, a Bentley also won the final of the race on a cylinder-capacity handicap basis. Moreover, on the score of distance, three other Bentleys were respectively second, third and fourth, and they finished together, crossing the finishing line like a squadron of battleships in "line-ahead."

A little while ago all Europe and all America were talking of the Hispano-Stutz duel which took place recently at Indianapolis. There was talk then of a Bentley entering the lists against these two redoubtable foreign marques. The chance came last Saturday for the Bentley...

The 24-hour race for the Rudge-Whitworth Cups look place at Le Mans, in the Department of the Sarthe, France. It began at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 16th, and finished at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 17th. The cars, which were of touring type, were, with slight alterations, production models, and were required to average a certain performance according to their engine capacity. The vehicle which covered the greatest excess mileage was the winner, although a cup was also given for the greatest distance covered in the 24 hours. The distance round the course was 10.7 miles.

The 24-hour race for the Rudge-WhitWorth Cup took place at Le Mans in the Department of the Sarthe, France. It began at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 18th, and finished at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 19th. The cars, which were of touring type, were required to average certain performances according to their engine capacity, the vehicle having covered the greatest excess mileage being acclaimed the winner. The distance round the course was 10.7 miles. The first 20 circuits had to be made with the hoods erected, and only the electric starter was allowed to be used for starting the engines.

With a thrilling roar and the clash of Bendix pinions 41 self-starters come to use, and 40 engines spring to life. All, that is, with the exception of poor Montier's wonderfully speeded-up Ford, which splutters and bangs and will not start until half a dozen depressions of the starter button, when he rushes gamely off in the rear of the procession... Duff on the other hand, pulls his hood, secures in like lightning to the screen pillars and roars off in a babel of warm-heated applause...

Twenty-seven vintage Bentley cars — none newer than 1931 — particpated in the recently concluded 'Vintage Bentley Tour of South Africa 2007'. Read Kurt Furger's diary notes...

Fourteen Vintage Bentley cars participated in the 2007 Peking-to-Paris Rally, which began in Peking on May 27, 2007, and ended on June 30th. The race is a reenactment of the original "great race" of 1907, the first transcontinental motor rally.

Ever since the wheel was invented, people have tried to discover ways making them get to speed, or go round faster! Since 1920 owners of Bentleys have not been an exception... In 1920 W.O. Bentley invited Frank Clement to join Bentley Motors as competition and test driver...