The car is current owned by Leslie Smith in the Isle of Man.

"I bought the 1933 4-litre Bentley, registration number TY 999, in 1962. It was already fitted with the Perkins P6 diesel engine that Michael Hays mentions in his book. This probably accounts for it being affordable to me when just leaving university and still jobless – I paid £175. The previous owner was a dentist in Fulham (I forget his name) who told me that the previous owner to him had installed the diesel engine during or just after WW2, in order to deal with the problem of petrol rationing. This owner was a Mr. Vinten, of Vinten Cameras, a specialist camera company famous for aircraft reconnaissance cameras in both world wars and equipping the BBC and ITV in their early years. Apparently, Mr. Vinten’s sport was hydroplane racing and he used the Bentley to tow his boat to meetings all over Europe. The Vinten factory was at that time on the North Circular Road in Cricklewood. I recall driving the Bentley past the factory quite often.

This was my only car for some two years and it served well. I lived in Oxford but my first job was teaching in South London. I commuted between Oxford and London every weekend and I also used the car as transport for an extra evening job as door-to-door demonstrator/salesman round the narrow streets of Balham. The diesel engine gave well over 30mpg, even in town, and with the size of the 4-litre’s petrol tank, I once calculated that I could probably drive from London to Warsaw without refilling. In 1964 I moved back to Oxford to a new job in the automobile industry. I started building and racing Rolls-Bentley specials and so in 1965 I sold TY 9999, for £300, to a friend who proceeded to prove its reliability and low fuel consumption by driving his family in the Bentley for a holiday in Greece. However, he later got involved in other projects and poor TY 9999 spent much time parked in a street in Hampstead, subject to vandalism by local kids. Taking pity on the car, I bought it back from my friend in 1967 – again for £175.

I planned to rebuild the car, possibly with a genuine Bentley engine, but due to other projects and several periods of work overseas, I did not start. In 1976, I decided to move permanently to Brazil and sold my UK house, garages and all my cars. I sold TY 9999 to Fouad Majzub from Persia, apparently one of the richest men in that country, with a collection of about 400 cars - 300 in Persia and 100 in England. In later years, as I again acquired Bentleys and remained a member of the BDC, I tried to accompany the history of TY 9999. Apparently, Fouad Majzub later resold the car as-is. It was rebuilt, losing its Freestone & Webb saloon coachwork and gaining an 8-litre engine and an open sports body. I do not know the name of the new owner.

I found no record of TY 9999 in the BDC club records during the remaining years of my club membership (up to about 1996). Also, I read on the DVLA website that TY 9999 (already with its new 8 litre engine) last paid road tax in the UK up to May 1991. I therefore assumed that it had been exported and, in the process, had probably lost its original registration number. I am therefore interested in the information on the vintagebentleys.org site, which says “In Isle of Man in 2006 / owned by a BDC member”. I would dearly like to trace the car’s current owner and whereabouts to learn how it is faring and maybe even to have the chance to see it once more in its current reincarnation. I will be grateful for any help. Also, I have some photographs of the car during the 1960’s that may be of interest to the current owner and also to readers of this website."

This car was owned by Alexander Romiszowski from 1962 to 1976.