"Brilliant newsletter Robert, keep them coming. EL 8239 is still in England..."

Chassis 332 was purchased by Philippe Rosy in 2007 and is owned by him currently.

Bentley 3 Liter Short Chassis Sports Open Tourer 1923
EL 8239 was delivered to Mr. L.J.R. Lapisburn of Ravensworth, England who ran the at the 1924 Brooklands Summer Meet. This is one of the most original early vintage Bentleys.

"The body is original and is a special lightweight body by Park Ward commissioned by Mr Lapizburn a keen racer. Car was built to race at Brooklands. BDC records show that Chassis No. 332 was sent back to the works in Jan. 1924 to have a Brooklands exhaust fitted. I now own the car."

U.S.A., 2006.

Photograph was taken during the 2006 Hillsborough 50th Anniversary Concours.

Photographs taken at 2006 Colorado Grand.

Photograph was taken at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2006

Hillsborough Concours de Elegance 2006. Photo by by Geschmidtt.

Coachwork by Park Ward & Co. Ltd. Delivered to Mr. L.J.R. Lapisburn of Ravensworth, England who ran the car at the 1924 Brooklands Summer Meet. The editor of Motor Sport confirmed Mr. Lapisburn turned in several laps averaging 93.62 mph at the event. Given the nature of the track, the speed down the Railway Straight was about 95mph. This is one of the most original early vintage Bentleys which is now been restored to excellent condition and ready for road or track. In 1987 the car was sent to specialists, McKenzie & Guppy of Dorset, England for a complete mechanical restoration. Every chassis rivet was replaced by hand; a new radiator core was fitted, together with a Phoenix crank, camshaft, Moller pistons and needle rockers. In 1989, Ray Wiltshire, President of the Bentley Drivers Club having completed several laps at the Lime Rock Park in this car, commented that it seemed to behave as it must have when new.

"1923 Bentley 3-Liter Short Chassis Sports Open Tourer Chassis #332 - Engine # 337 Coachwork by Park Ward & Co. Ltd.

Delivered to Mr. L.J.R. Lapisburn of Ravensworth, England who ran the car at the 1924 Brooklands Summer Meet. The editor of Motor Sport confirmed Mr. Lapisburn turned in several laps averaging 93.62 mph at the event. Given the nature of the track, the speed down the Railway Straight was about 95mph.

This is one of the most original early Vintage Bentleys which is now been restored to excellent condition and ready for road or track. In 1987 the car was sent to specialists, McKenzie & Guppy of Dorset, England for a complete mechanical restoration. Every chassis rivet was replaced by hand; a new radiator core was fitted, together with a Phoenix crank, camshaft, Moller pistons and needle rockers. In 1989, Ray Wiltshire, President of the Bentley Drivers Club having completed several laps at the Lime Rock Park in this car, commented that it seemed to behave as it must have when new."

Photograph shows Richard Freestone and Paul Sydlowski with Paul's car during North American Vintage Bentley Meet in North Carolina in May 2003.

An article in the July 31, 2002 issue of "The Houston Chronicle" newspaper interviewed owner, Paul Sydlowki. " ...Sydlowski discovered the chassis number was 332. "That this was one of the early customer racing cars," he said.

Modifications by Bentley Motors in 1925 included an experimental intake manifold and sloper carburetors which were still on the car more than 60 years later.

In the 1960s the original full front fenders were replaced by "blade" fenders, more in keeping with the sports/racing heritage of the vehicle. The front and rear fenders are now [2002] connected by a rubber-covered piece of wood that also serves as a running board.

"It was in a fairly disreputable shape," Sydlowski said. It was, however, all there. He sent his Bentley back to the homeland in October 1987 for a mechanical restoration. "It was well worn," Sydlowski said, "but no cosmetic work was needed."

Sydlowski received word the next summer that the work was complete. He flew to England to inspect the car and, to his dismay and dissatisfaction, the work was not acceptable. A year later, in 1989, the car was restored to his satisfaction and he shipped the bumperless Bentley home. Since then, Sydlowski and his wife, Barbara, long-term members of the Bentley Driver's Club, have participated in countless club events around the world — racing, hill climbs and cruises.

"We've enjoyed almost 40,000 trouble-free miles," Sydlowski said.

This car was owned by Paul Sydlowski from 1987 to 2005.

Newspaper clipping shows "Mr Geoffery Banks, owner of the 1923 Red Label Le Mans Bentley, with some of the Vintage Car Club members."

The date of this newspaper article is not known, but it mentions that, "Nine Leicester motoring enthusiasts were bemoaning the fact, at an impromptu meeting one night, that they had to drive over to Birmingham for meetings of the Vintage Sports Car Club and Vintage Motor Cycle Club — and an 80-mile round trip is more than enough as a regular journey to a club meeting... They decided to form a Leicestershire Vintage Car and Motorcycle Club — now three months old — came into being... The membership has already swollen to 60, and headquarters have been set up at Blaby."

Peter Hodge, son of one of the former owners of Chassis No. 332 believes that this article appeared in the papers soon after his father sold the car, which he did some time in the late forties.

"Hallo Rob, how absolutely incredible! My late father, who died 4 years ago, would have been equally amazed. The old bird still flying and obviously better than ever.

That little blond boy is me. I was born in 1942 and it is the first car that I remember. I had to bounced on the pavement to get warm during those trips to Scotland under the tonneau because I could not move due to the cold. She seemed to run effortlessly but as it was dad's everyday road car then that was the best thing for it. He used to get parts for it from a garage in the city where he worked (Bank of England, no not the cashier) the mechanic was called Bowler, I have a huge spanner that had to be made to take off some huge nut, must be 3.5 inches flat to flat. The tyres were retread lorry tires. When they got bald another groove was cut in them. One amazing coincidence that I remember was on approaching a cross roads somewhere in the north of England two other open topped (what else?) Bentleys approached at the same time and we all 3 stopped together. Once or twice we broke down but always seemed to get assistance from the AA."

"My father had 3 Bentleys in succession. The one before EL 8239 was YE 9455 but nothing comes up on Google. Maybe you can trace it if it still exists.

As you can see on a couple of the images of EL 8239 it has war time hooded head lamps, so he must have bought it 1939/1940 and kept it up until 1946/47/48.

I wondered at first if it was the same car because the mud guards are completely different. It seems that the original guards (the long front ones connected to the running boards) were taken off?? and those very cheap looking flat aluminium? ones put on. Maybe a DIY job by dad. (Shame on him eh?) The feature that makes this stand out to the previous car are the small individual wind screens."

"Dear Rob,

I was rummaging through some old files and came across a letter from Bill Boddy stating that on Saturday, 5 July, 1924, Mr. L. J. B. Lapizburn raced his 1923 Bentley at Brooklands in some famous company. It was light grey with blue wheels. It lapped at 76.27 mph and at 93.62 mph in the 100 mph Short Handicap but was unplaced, although it must have been doing a 100 mph down the straight. He seems to only have raced this once."