1930 Bentley 4½-Litre
"VSCC Loton Park - Sunday 9th September 2018
Chassis PB3537 was originally bodied by Freestone & Webb as a saloon, then converted into a shooting brake in the 1940s, stripped down to a crude open-sided body in the 1950s and finally re-bodied with this replica team car body in the late 1960s."

"I see under chassis PB3537 there is a note from a Matthew Dunphy regarding a vintage Bentley that his father owned in Rhodesia. I wonder if you might be able to pass on my email address to Matthew as I may be able to help him with some info on the car, which was not reg'n YW 5758 as he has noted."

VSCC Loton Park - Sunday 13th September 2015

VSCC Curborough Speed Trials, May 2013

Prescott Hill Climb

Blithfield, August 2010

2009 Staffordshire Airshow

During the Vintage Bentley Tour of France 2008 (Loire and Bordeaux).

Roberta Downes, organiser of the tour is seen in the photograph above.

"Here is GJ 3235 in June 2007 just north of Fontevraud L'Abbaye in France on a very wet day."

"I've done much mechanical work and driven approximately 80,000 miles, mostly touring France, but also attending events in the UK. In 1983 we shipped the car to South Africa for the 'Total Tour of South Africa'. Moreover, I can now claim to have been the careful guardian of this magnificent car for longer (27 years) than any previous owner."

Chassis PB3537 was built at Bentley's Cricklewood works as a standard 1930 Model 4½ Litre on the standard 10' 10" wheelbase chassis: with engine PB3531; "D" type gearbox; and late pattern rear axle with 15/53 3.53 axle ratio.

The chassis frame is the late pattern with deep bottom flanges and reinforcing plates inside the chassis above the strut gear uprights. The braking system is as per the 1930 specification with self-wrapping brakes and stainless steel handbrake lever.

The engine is the original with Electron sump, turret and valve chest the sideplates are stainless steel. The carburettors are original HVG5 pattern on the original manifold complete with all the original rods and levers. Also, the brake pedal shaft is the late pattern mounted on alluminium trunion blocks.

The instruments are original Jeager speedo and revolution counter, together with Smiths' clock. Smiths' 0-60 oil pressure guage, Smiths' bezel switch/ammeter, Smiths' starter switch. and additional oil temperature guage, Ki-gass contol, Bosch horn buttons and twin dash lamps. The switchplate is the standard Bentley unit with the original chassis number PB3537.

The chassis is also currently fitted with blower strut gear, Marshal fork-mounted headlights, Napoleon (of London) fold-flat screen, 38 gallon LeMans fuel tank, and Adre Hartford friction dampers.

Car was shipped to South Africa in 1983 by owner B.S. Downes for the "Total Tour of South Africa"

Photographs were taken at Silverstone Race Track in England in August 1981.

This car was purchased by B.S. Downes in November 1980 from Dr Paul Hummel, of Salcombe, with registration number GJ 3235.

"I am in England attending the funeral of my grandmother. As always many stories come out of such events. One of the stories that brings back many memories for all parties is my grandfather's find and restoration of a Bentley in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) license plate YW 5758. From what I understand so far he found the car in a tobacco field where it was being used as a tractor. He bought it and contacted Bentley for a replacement radiator. It subsequently developed a leak that couldn't be fixed in Africa and he was forced to sell it to an American and that is when we lost track.

Any idea how I might find the current owner and more information than what is on this website? My grandfather's name was Sir Frank Hugh Parry. He was employed in the Central African Federation which was Britain's colonial government. This would have been 1958-59-60 ish. Any information would be nice. We might've able to provide photos once we go through all the 'stuff'"

Sold by Quayle to Dr. Paul Hummel in 1958 when he was in Kenya, but soon after this he moved back to England and lived in Salcombe. The car still has the Edmunds' bodywork commissioned by Hummel in the late 1960s. His friend Tom Rose lent him his works' team car YW 5758 for Edmunds to reproduce the body exactly.

Ronald Loader sold the car to Mr. Quayle, manager of Martins Bank Plymouth, in December 1957.

Quayle was a bit of a "wheeler-dealer" in vintage Bentleys at that time and stripped the shooting brake body from the chassis and fitted a crude flat-sided "boy racer" open body. In this form it was sold to Dr Hummel in 1958...

Car was re-registered "39 AAF" just prior to its sale.

The log book mentions Cambourne, but in about 1957 Ronald Loader moved to 20 Onslow Gardens, south Kensington London SW7.

Ronald Loader (later to become hon. Spares' Registrar of the BDC) bought her from J B Curry in 1943.

When Loader acquired the Bentley it had been modified into a shooting brake from the front door pillar back; the doors and everything forward had been kept. Moreover, it was fitted with Cowan gas-producer but Loader got rid of that and changed the body colour from drab brown to black and yellow. Loader later ran the Castle Restaurant and Bakery in Bridgenorth and became the first BDC honorary Spares' registrar. Ronald Loader registered the car with the number RL1 and later wrote an article in the BDC "Review" about how he acquired the number and transferred it to the Bentley.

J B Curry of Totnes, Headmaster of Dartington Hall School was owner of this car some time (or all the time?) between 1938 and 1943.

The car was first registered GJ 8727 in February 1930 as a Freestone and Webb saloon and was sold by Jack Olding and Son, Dealers, to Chas. U Peat who lived in Darlington, and owned her until September 1938.