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1931 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged
Chassis No. MS3934
Engine No. MS3937
Registration No. GY 3904
 
Report on 4½ Litre Supercharged Bentley chassis MS3934
 

This report follows on my inspection of Julian Walter’s car in Australia in January 2010, and my inspection of Martin Perels’ car in Holland on 12 July 2010.

On the next page is a copy of the Bentley Motors Service Record for chassis MS3934. It was built as a 1931 model 4½ Litre Supercharged chassis, with engine no. MS3937 and “D” type box no.7246. The supercharger number is not listed; it is not recorded for all Blower chassis, but is usually close to the chassis number so it would have been around no. 134. The date the chassis was completed and despatched to Vanden Plas for bodying is not recorded, but the VdP invoice gives an order date of 11 February 1931, to be completed by 30 April 1931. The completed car was returned to Bentley’s works at Cricklewood and passed off Final Test on 13 May 1931, shortly before Bentley Motors went into receivership on 11 July 1931. MS3934 was clearly unsold at this date, and was sold along with a number of other cars by J.K. Carruth, formerly Bentley’s MD and an employee of Woolf Barnato, on 28 June 1932 to Jack Barclay.

The original Vanden Plas body was no. 1727, as per VdP record below. This was a new design of open two-door four-seater body developed by Vanden Plas to supersede the earlier four-seater sports body, by 1930 passing out of fashion. A sister car to MS3934, chassis SM3920, was exhibited on Bentley’s stand at the 1930 Olympia Motor Show. Both cars were finished in apple green with black wings, wheels, and body mouldings, with green leather interior. MS3934 was sold by Barclay to Brown & Mallalieu in June 1932, for £900, presumably as agents for the first recorded owner, W.R. Handley. MS3934 was allocated the London registration number GY 3904. Unfortunately the London records were destroyed by the GLC in 1979.

The Service Record notes later owners as F. Coxhill in 1933, W.J. Wise in 1935, and W.T. Barnicot in 1938. No major work is listed in the Service Record, which is continuous through to May 1939. Turning to the BDC card index, Barnicot is listed as the owner in January 1948 and again in October 1950. Barnicot wrote up MS3934 in BDC Review no. 2, in 1946, as reproduced below. At the start of his ownership the car was still in very original order. He fitted a 3 Litre engine no. 437 from chassis 439 temporarily, probably during the war for fuel economy reasons. He later dismantled this car and sold the chassis and other parts to David Llewellyn.

Sometime around 1950, I think, Barnicot dismantled MS3934, selling it in parts. A write-up by his son David in Review no. 59 January 1961 says that David Llewellyn bought the chassis frame and some other parts, the chassis going to C.G. Punter who had fitted a 6½ Litre engine and was in the process of building a body. This, though, will be set aside for the moment, as this is a distraction, as will become clear. Sticking with the genuine frame of MS3934, there is a note in the BDC Card Index that it was owned by Mr Shellcock circa 1970. Mr Shellcock had some involvement in car building and Tim Houlding recalls him having a damaged Blower engine, possibly SM3905. It was then bought by Stanley Mann circa 1971/72, possibly through Ulf Smith. Stanley collected the parts to build a Blower car on this frame, and had Townshend build a four-seater VdP style open body on it.

From my inspection of this car in Perth in 2010, it is likely that the frame bought by Stanley Mann was still fitted with its pedal shaft, compensating shaft and brake frogs (reversing levers for the front brakes). From circumstantial evidence I suspect the chassis was bought from Barnicot in this partially stripped state by Llewellyn, and wasn’t used by C.G. Punter as the basis for his car at all. Rather it remained in this form until it was bought by Mann. When cars were stripped for parts through to the 1960s the chassis frame and ancillary parts were worthless, as people were breaking cars for useful parts rather than building cars from parts. In this environment engines, gearboxes, back axles and radiators, and steering columns and front axles, were of value. Mechanical braking system parts were of little value as many cars were converted to hydraulic brakes. Similarly pedal shafts were of no value. Hence it would be no surprise if these parts weren’t removed from the chassis frame. Curiously the nearside front dumbiron knuckle is from chassis MS3949.

As built up by Mann the car is otherwise a “bitsa”, made up of original Bentley components from a number of different cars; front axle PM3270, steering column UK3298, “D” box 7150 (ex chassis NT3140) with lid 7088 (ex chassis TX3235), 6½ Litre diff unit BX2423, banjo SR1422, supercharger no. 124 (originally fitted to SM3922), bonnet no. MS3949. Considering this car has both the bonnet and the dumbiron knuckle from MS3949, it is possible that Townshend is involved somewhere along the line, as he rebuilt MS3949 as a Birkin short-chassis replica in the early 1970s, and he sold a lot of parts to Stanley Mann. As first built the engine was no. SM3905, originally fitted to chassis SM3902, a car broken up for parts in 1949. Ulf Smith bought this engine sometime around the middle of 1970, with “an almost complete chassis” (BDC Review no. 104 May 1972 p.150). This frame was, we are told, probably from a supercharged car but no number was visible on it. Smith sold the engine to Stanley Mann but not, it seems, the chassis frame (see letters exchanged between Stanley Mann and Stanley Sedgwick, reproduced below). Since this was written the original front axle MS3934 has been recovered and refitted. It also turns out the engine has the magneto turret from an experimental 4½ Litre engine, Exp6.

1931 - 1939
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Bentley Motors’ Service Record for chassis MS3934.

In the usual way of things, Stanley Mann would have registered this car as GY 3904, using the chassis number, MS3934. This wasn’t readily possible because this identity had already been claimed by Cyril Wadsworth, for a Blower car that he was building up from parts. Cyril Wadsworth was a prominent BDC member and, given that someone else had claimed this identity, rather than get into a confrontation Stanley the pragmatic car dealer chose to register his car as PO3265, the number originally allocated to chassis SM3902 (presumably on the basis that Mann had engine SM3905, originally fitted to SM3902). This car was later sold by Christies at their sale of 11 July 1974, to P. Clapham. It was later owned by T.L Roberts before being bought by Peter Briggs around 1981 through the Clarendon Carriage Co., and is now owned by Julian Walter. It was sold by Christies as chassis SM3902 and was recorded as such until the 1990s when Peter Briggs’ people scraped the paint off the front cross-member to reveal the number MS3934.

It is worth emphasising that if Cyril Wadsworth hadn’t claimed this identity, which was then possible because the regulations managed by the relevant government agencies were pretty lax — far more so than now — this car would have been registered as GY 3904 chassis MS3934 without question, and there would be no need for this report. Many other cars have been rebuilt on chassis frames kept from cars broken up for spares, with no problems. The remainder of this report documents how this situation came about.

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Vanden Plas publicity photograph of their new two-door 4-seater sports design for the Blower chassis, intended to replace the dated, primitive sports four-seater body fitted to earlier chassis. Seven of these bodies were built, on chassis SM3920, SM3924, MS3932, MS3933, MS3934, MS3941, and MS3942. The first of these (SM3920) was exhibited at the Olympia Motor Show by Vanden Plas in 1930. The second is SM3924, illustrated here. Of these seven, four are still fitted to their original chassis (SM3920, MS3933, MS3941, and MS3942). Two exist but aren’t on a chassis at present (SM3924 and MS3932). This leaves just the body for MS3934, originally finished in apple green and black, as SM3924 illustrated above, unaccounted for. It is likely that the body built by Mayfair on MS3938 is a copy of this style, when sold new by Jack Barclay the colour is given as black.

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Vanden Plas body record no. 1727, built on chassis MS3934, and Barclay invoice for sale of MS3934 new via Brown & Mallalieu.
The body record refers to body no. 1725, built on chassis MS3932, similar to SM3924 illustrated above (body no. 1709).


1946
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Barnicot’s article in BDC Review no. 2, in 1946. MS3934 also appeared earlier in Review 2, as below (second from the right). (Scanned from a bound copy, hence problems with p. 17, above)


1946/48
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From Tony Charnock’s photo album, showing MS3934 at events circa 1946/48. The photo above is the one printed in Review 2, previous page,
showing MS3934 next to Charnock’s 4½ Litre YU4517, now owned by Peter Graham. There is some damage to the offside front wing but it looks otherwise sound.
 

The photo to the right is at Cheddar Gorge, showing MS3934 sixth from the right.
 

A BDC event in Gloucester circa 1946/48, with MS3934 to the back right. The damage to the offside front wing can be seen.
These three photos all show the distinctive apple green and black two-tone colour scheme.

Because the story is messy, the best place to start is perhaps with a letter written by Cyril Wadsworth to Stanley Sedgwick in 1974, when Sedgwick was doing the research for his monograph Where Have All the Blowers Gone? As mentioned above, MS3934 was bought by W.T. Barnicot in 1938, and kept by him until circa 1950, as a complete, running car. According to David Llewellyn MS3934 was dismantled by Barnicot. Llewellyn knew Barnicot, as he had previously bought the remains of 3 Litre chassis 439 from him. Barnicot bought this car as a complete, running long chassis saloon, and dismantled it for spares, selling the frame to Llewellyn stripped of all its major components except gearbox. However Wadsworth attributes the dismantling to Jack Bailey, well-known for dismembering Bentleys and building specials out of the parts. Wadsworth claims that, as with virtually every other Bentley that went through his hands, Bailey butchered the car. Bailey may have had parts from MS3934 but I have no evidence for this. This letter muddied the waters right from the start, and it is striking that Sedgwick reproduced it in his Blower monograph with the caveat that “names mentioned have been transcribed into symbols to avoid stimulating correspondence as to the detailed accuracy of the happenings or otherwise”. If Sedgwick believed it all to be true there would be little prospect for “stimulating correspondence”. Stanley Sedgwick was an accountant by training and meticulous by nature and I suspect that he had grave reservations about the accuracy of the Wadsworth letter. Nevertheless I am sure that there are grains of truth in it, as well as fabrications, so it is worth following it through.

According to Wadsworth the engine, number MS3937, went to Taylor. By 1972 it was in a well-known racing 4½ Litre known as Bluebelle (chassis RL3439), later removed and fitted to a Blower 4½ Litre built up from parts by Ulf Smith (chassis SM3919). The “D” box and back axle went “to someone in Scandinavia”, it isn’t known who this is or which car they went into. This strikes me as somewhat improbable as I can’t think who in Scandinavia would have been buying such parts in the early/mid 1950s. However Ulf Smith bought a Blower radiator in Sweden which had been imported in 1958, so it is not impossible (ref BDC Review no. 104 May 1972 p.150), but if these parts had been exported to Sweden I’m sure Ulf would have followed them up. These parts are most likely in another car but there is no trace at present.

The rest apparently went to David Llewellyn, with the front axle and steering column going to Don McKenzie, although David Llewellyn didn’t confirm this in his correspondence with me. Again I suspect there is more to this than is admitted, although with the passage of time it is possible that his memory is hazy. It is now known that the front axle stayed with David Llewellyn, as discussed below, and didn’t go to McKenzie at all. Wadsworth claims that the rest then went to a Mr Punter, who turned it into a 6½ Litre special. Unfortunately there are no known photographs of this car. The BDC card index lists C.G. Punter as the owner of MS3934 in January 1959, and then B. Petch in March 1965, but here the story wavers a bit. First of all, Punter lists his car as a 6½, not as a 4½/6½ (bearing in mind that he supposedly built the car up, he would have known what it was). Here is the card for him:

1959
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1974
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The original of Cyril Wadsworth’s 1974 letter to Stanley Sedgwick, published by Sedgwick in his monograph on the Blowers with the names changed to letters.

Next, we have B. Petch in 1965. His membership application form is reproduced overleaf. Again, the car is listed as a 6½ Litre, not as a 4½/6½. The change to the application form (the addition of the circled 4½/6) was made by the BDC staff. If the chassis frame had really been that of MS3934, then the wheelbase would be recorded as 10'10", not 12'7¼". This latter wheelbase is correct for a long chassis Standard Six circa 1927/1928, nominally 12'6", not for a Blower 4½ Litre. (The wheelbases of Standard and Speed Sixes vary from the nominal wheelbase for all but the very early chassis due to changes to the position of the front axle on the road springs.) It follows that, beyond any reasonable doubt, the car owned by Punter and Petch never had the chassis frame from MS3934 at all. So at this point effectively the logbook for chassis MS3934, registration GY3904, had been transferred to a 6½ Litre “bitsa”. It is possible that some parts of MS3934 went into this car, including the radiator, but I can’t find any evidence to support this (see later comments on Norman Smith’s 6½ Litre “bitsa” chassis FA2518).

To go back to Cyril Wadsworth’s letter, he notes that the Punter/Petch car was then bought by Norman Smith. We are told that Mr Smith already had a 6½ Litre chassis frame, so he transferred the 6½ Litre engine and all the 6½ Litre parts to this chassis frame (chassis number FA2518) and sold the remains to Cyril Wadsworth. Note, first, that the engine number listed by Mr Petch on his application form is HM2856, a very late Speed Six engine. Turning to the BDC card index again, the card for Mr Smith is reproduced opposite.

This shows that the car Norman Smith bought in July 1967 and then “sold” in October 1967 wasn’t MS3934 at all, it was a 6½ Litre chassis KD2112 with Speed Six engine HM2856; the engine fitted to the car Smith bought from Petch, registered GY3904 and supposedly chassis MS3934. KD2112 was built new as a 1927 Standard Six on the 12'6" chassis, resulting in a wheelbase of 12'7¼" allowing for the “B” type front springs (these add about 1¼" to the nominal wheelbase). The Punter/ Petch/Smith car, consequently, was a 6½ Litre all along, with chassis KD2112 and engine HM2856.

1965
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Brian Petch’s application form to join the BDC in 1965. Although the chassis number is listed as MS3934, the engine number is a Speed Six (HM2856) and the model is given as a 1932 Speed Six, more or less in line with the engine (HM2856 is a very late Speed Six engine). The wheelbase is given as 12'7¼", correct for a Standard Six with a nominal wheelbase of 12'6" and wholly inconsistent with a Blower chassis, which has a wheelbase of 10'10". The circled “4½/6” has been added by the staff at the BDC, in trying to make sense of the numbers given.

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Norman Smith dismantled this car and sold the registration plates, and possibly the original radiator from MS3934, to Cyril Wadsworth. There is no evidence that Smith sold any further parts of MS3934 to Wadsworth. Smith fitted engine HM2856 to the 6½ Litre he was building up, chassis FA2518 registered XV930. He then informed the BDC in October 1967 that he owned this car, as per the card index. Mr Smith then hung the chassis frame no. KD2112 on the wall in his garage, where it remained until the mid 1980s when he sold it to George Dodds, who rebuilt it as a 6½ Litre “bitsa”. I have spoken to Mr Smith but he claims to be very old and not to remember anything at all. Coincidentally FA2518 came up for sale in 2011, entered for an RM auction. I went to see this car at RM’s facility at Southend on 31 May 2011 and confirmed that no parts of MS3934 ended up in this car. This is consistent with just the logbook and perhaps the radiator of MS3934 going into the Punter/Petch car and from thence to Wadsworth, via Smith.

With the log book for a Blower 4½ Litre, Cyril Wadsworth then collected the parts he needed to build a car. He managed to buy the original steering column, no. MS3934, to go with the logbook. At the risk of labouring the point, this is the ONLY part of MS3934 that Cyril Wadsworth ever owned. The front axle fitted by Don McKenzie to Philip Mann’s 4½ Litre chassis MF3169 is not MS3934, as this axle was still owned by Llewellyn. I saw MF3169 in 1992 and the notes I made at the time say front axle looks to be MS3931 (a car that was also dismantled for parts). As for the chassis frame, the BDC card index for Wadsworth’s car notes “Has front cross-member from another chassis (no chassis no. on it)” (card reproduced below). When I went to see Martin Perels’ car, the car built up by Cyril Wadsworth, we scraped the front chassis cross-member thoroughly and couldn’t find a number on it. The cross-member certainly looks to be an original item but it shows considerable corrosion pitting and no evidence of a number at all. The chassis is of course heavily painted but the cross-member looks to be in worse condition than the rest of the chassis frame.

What seems most likely is this. The 6½ Litre car bought by C.G. Punter in 1959, possibly from Jack Bailey, wasn’t chassis MS3934. It might have had some parts from MS3934, but I can’t find any evidence for this. Effectively it was a 6½ Litre with chassis frame KD2112 and engine HM2856. The registration plates from GY3904 were, it would seem, “borrowed” for this car. Put differently, we have an instance of log book fraud. Since MS3934 was dismantled for spares the log book should have been surrendered to the licensing authorities. As far as I can tell the Punter/Petch/Smith car is not MS3934 at all, it is (a reconstruction of) 6½ Litre chassis KD2112.

This makes entire sense of the Punter/Petch/Smith/Wadsworth scenario. This being so, irrespective of previous logbook dealings, when Norman Smith dismantled this car in 1967, hanging the chassis frame KD2112 on the wall of his garage and putting the engine no. HM2856 and other parts into his 6½ Litre chassis FA2518, he should have surrendered the logbook (i.e. the logbook for registration mark GY3904) and listed the car (i.e. the 6½ Litre bitsa chassis KD2112 engine HM2856) as broken up for spares. So we have two instances of at best log book irregularities in the 1950s and 1960s. I saw Norman Smith’s car recently when it was sold by RM Auctions, and confirmed that no part of the car comes from MS3934. Even more recently front axle MS3934 came to light, owned by David Llewellyn. This axle was obtained by Julian Walter and is now reunited with chassis MS3934. I spoke to Tim Llewellyn about the origins of this axle, but didn’t get anything out of him except that it had been in his father’s spares collection for about 50 years. It seems most likely to me that David Llewellyn also had the gearbox and the back axle out of MS3934, but I haven’t been able to confirm this. David Llewellyn also built up a 6½ Litre from parts in the 1980s, chassis FA2510. I saw this car recently at Graham Moss’s and confirmed that it doesn’t have either the back axle or the gearbox from MS3934. It is likely that one day these parts will turn up in other cars.

The car built up by Cyril Wadsworth was sold to Stanley Mann in the mid 1980s, built up on a 9'9½" chassis frame with a red fabric four-seater VdP replica body. It had an unsupercharged 4½ Litre engine and lacked a supercharger unit. I saw this car in Stanley Mann’s workshop around 1985, and made a note of the component numbers: engine XR3335 (number damaged, could have been XR3338, but I am pretty sure it is XR3335 originally fitted to chassis XR3335), “D” type gearbox 7204 (ex chassis SM3905), differential unit WB2553, banjo XR3335, steering column MS3934. There was no visible chassis number. This car was registered by Cyril Wadsworth as GY3904 chassis MS3934 and was sold to Stanley Mann as such. Two photos I took at the time are reproduced below, along with a photo taken by me in Stanley Mann’s showroom after the rebuild was complete, circa 1989.

Turning to 4½ Litre XR3335, this car was last listed with the BDC in 1962. It has since been reconstructed around a mostly new chassis frame, using the original front cross-member XR3335. This leads me to think that Cyril Wadsworth bought chassis XR3335 in a dismantled state and used it as a donor car for his Blower project. Hence the chassis frame under Martin Perels’ car (the car built up by Cyril) is possibly that from XR3335 with an unnumbered Blower front crossmember and dumbiron knuckles, origin unknown.

When bought by Stanley Mann from Cyril it was, as far as I am aware, a non-runner and not fitted with a supercharger. Stanley removed the engine XR3335 and fitted it to another car (4½ Litre chassis XF3525), and sold the open body then fitted to the chassis. He fitted a Blower-pattern engine built up on an original Blower crankcase SM3920 ex chassis SM3918, and fitted an original supercharger unit no. 120 ex chassis SM3924. The chassis was cut to 9'9½" wheelbase and fitted with a Birkin-replica body by H&H. I am not sure who owned this car until it was sold to Martin Perels, I gather around 1993. It is still owned by him, as far as I am aware, at the time of writing.

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BDC index card for chassis MS3934, traced through Barnicot, Punter, Petch and Wadsworth.
This follows the logbook and not the chassis frame. This is the car now owned by Martin Perels.

BDC index card for chassis SM3902, stating clearly that it was broken up for parts in 1949. The engine reappeared in 1970 in chassis MS3950, this refers to Ulf Smith. I am not aware that any parts of chassis SM3902 ended up in the car Ulf Smith was building up (chassis MS3950). Given that Wadsworth had claimed the identity for MS3934, Mann opportunistically claimed that for SM3902. The card follows this car through Mann, Clapham, Roberts, and Peter Briggs (York Motor Museum).

Given Brian Fenn’s emphasis on the importance of the chassis frame in the recent court case over the Speed Six built by Stanley Mann, it would seem proper that the identity MS3934 and registration number GY3904 be restored to the car built by Stanley Mann circa 1971/72 using the chassis frame MS3934, with this number stamped to the chassis front cross-member. The Speed Six at the centre of the court case had, it should be remembered, only the nearside front dumbiron knuckle SB2770, and this is, we are told, sufficient for identity purposes. The other claimant to the identity MS3934, the car owned by Martin Perels in Holland, has only the steering column MS3934 and as far as I am aware no-one has ever seriously argued that a car built from bits around a steering column is entitled to the chassis identity and registration number associated with the number stamped on the steering box.


Clare Hay 1 September 2013

1974
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An exchange of letters between Stanley Mann and Stanley Sedgwick when the latter was writing his monograph on the Blowers. Stanley states that the chassis, or at least parts thereof, came from Ulf Smith. Stanley Sedgwick’s letter is very carefully worded, stating only that Ulf didn’t own chassis SM3902. The chassis frame from this car was almost certainly scrapped in 1949. Whether Stanley Mann bought chassis frame MS3934 from Ulf Smith is not at all clear and I have not been able to ascertain the full facts.

1972
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Ulf Smith’s write up from BDC Review no. 104, May 1972, of his adventures with Blowers. The photograph shows, I think, MS3950 as bought (see advert below), with engine SM3905
put in for show purposes. I do not know what became of the unnumbered chassis frame, but it is possible that this was MS3934 and that Ulf sold it to Stanley Mann.
Crankcase SM3905 was later removed from this car by Peter Briggs and sold, because it was in poor condition.
 
July 1970

From the BDC Advertiser for July 1970, for chassis MS3950 bought by Ulf Smith. I think the seller was Horsefields of Halifax.

July 1974
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The Mann/Briggs car as built up by Stanley Mann on chassis MS3934 using engine SM3905, originally fitted to chassis
SM3902 and registered as that car. This is from Christies’ sale catalogue for 11 July 1974.

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This is from BDC Review no. 264, August 2009, and is of interest because the open sports body fitted to this chassis is most likely the original body from MS3934. It is a high-sided sports body with long bonnet, finished in a two-tone colour scheme; as far as is known this body style was made by Vanden Plas only for Blower chassis, and all the bodies are accounted for apart from that on MS3934. The date (circa 1947/50) is consistent with Barnicot’s dismantling of MS3934, although I don’t think he is the vicar in The Lizard. Vanden Plas built similar bodies on a few late 4½ Litre chassis but as far as I am aware these all had standard bonnets, and an example possibly built by Mayfair on a Blower chassis (MS3938) was finished in black.


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Chassis MS3934 as rebuilt by Stanley Mann in the early 1970s, as now in Australia. It was bought by Peter Briggs, owner of the West Australia Motor Museum,
from The Clarendon Carriage Co in 1981 and exported to Australia. Apart from a change of crankcase it is still as built by Stanley Mann with VdP replica body by Townshend.
 
         
(Left) The front crossmember showing clearly the chassis number MS3934. This is stamped in the correct place in the correct orientation, with the letters above the numbers.
(Right) Underside of the nearside front dumbiron knuckle showing the number MS3949 (see text).
 
         
(Left) Midships view of the chassis frame showing the correct 1930 pattern internal reinforcing bracket used with bolted strutgear. Three out of four of these brackets
are still fitted, along with all the original correct pattern bolted strut gear. (Right) The steering column is from a 4½ Litre chassis UK3298.
 
         
(Above) With bolted strut gear, the steering column is bolted to the top flange of the chassis only, with a special internal reinforcing plate. Fitting this involves cutting into the sidemember
reinforcing plate and the engine bearer. The bracket is fitted with two 3/8" bolts, peened over. These bolts can be seen to the outer face of the sidemember behind the droparm (right).
The installation to MS3934 is complete and correct, apart from spacers to the bolts (double nuts have been used here).
 
         
(Above) The diff unit is from a Standard Six, chassis no.BX2423 (left), while the banjo is from a 3 Litre, chassis SR1422 (right).
 
         
(Left) The bonnet is from MS3949, a Blower rebuilt by Townshend as a Birkin replica in the early 1970s, around the time Stanley Mann was building up MS3934. The switchplate (right) is from chassis SM3905, another car rebuilt by Townshend as a Le Mans replica in the 1960s. These parts are both consistent with Stanley Mann buying many of the parts for this car from Townshend.
 
         
(Left) The supercharger is an original early plain case unit, no.124 (the number can be seen below the starting handle cap to the front casing). This is from chassis SM3922
which now has a ribbed casing blower with an unclear number that looks to be 133. (Right) The front axle is from 4½ Litre PM3270.
 
         
(Left) “D” type box fitted to chassis MS3934, with lid no.7088 and casing no.7150. (Below) D box 7150 was fitted to chassis NT3140 in June 1928, presumably as a new box (the entry is partially obscured by a pasted-in slip dated September 1928). (Right) The magneto turret is from Exp6, the second known experimental 4½ Litre engine (Exp5 was a pre-production engine used in a 3 Litre chassis and later in a special car raced at Brooklands by Froy). Unfortunately there are virtually no records from inside Bentley Motors about experimental work.
 
 
         
Front axle beam MS3934 as recovered from Tim Llewellyn and refitted to chassis MS3934. The beam is the correct late pattern heavy beam with jacking pads,
as fitted to the second series of chassis (MS3926–MS3950). The jacking pad can be seen (right) to the right of the shock absorber.
 
         
(Left) The chassis frame of the Wadsworth car photographed in 1981, showing a standard 4½ Litre chassis frame fitted with Blower-pattern bolted strut gear. The ½" hole for the standard
4½ Litre steering column mounting can be seen in the bottom flange masked by the strut gear bracket, with no reinforcing inside the chassis channel for the steering column bolts.
The photograph to the right shows a correct Blower chassis frame with no hole to the bottom flange above the strut gear bracket as the Blower has the steering box bolted to the top flange only,
with a reinforcing bracket fitted to the frame with the engine bearer and reinforcing plate cut away to clear this. This arrangement is all missing from the Wadsworth frame.
 
         
(Above) These photos were taken by me in Stanley Mann’s workshop circa 1986, showing the car built by Cyril Wadsworth around steering column MS3934 and registered as GY3904.
At this date Stanley Mann was rebuilding it as a Birkin short chassis replica. The engine is a standard 4½ Litre unit no. XR3335, with SU H6 carburettors. No supercharger was fitted as
Cyril Wadsworth couldn’t locate one. My contemporary notes list the component numbers for this car, none of them from MS3934, apart from the steering column, and that the chassis
frame was to standard 4½ Litre specification apart from the front cross-member. No chassis number could be seen to the latter.
 

A further photograph taken by me of the Wadsworth car as rebuilt by Stanley Mann, in his showroom circa 1989. Stanley Mann fitted a “bitsa” blower specification engine
based on crankcase SM3920 from chassis SM3918 after the latter was fitted with a new crankcase by Elmdown Engineering. Initially a new John Bentley-made supercharger was fitted,
then an original unit no. 120 from chassis SM3924 with a new finned centre section.
 

Underbonnet view of the Wadsworth car in 2010, during my inspection, with the deckboard removed and paint stripped from the front crossmember.
No chassis number could be found on the crossmember. I did not check the nearside front dumbiron knuckle as at that time I didn’t know these are numbered.
 
         
(Left) The Wadsworth chassis from below, showing that the front crossmember is more heavily corroded than the rest of the chassis. (The rest of the frame is in very good condition.)
This looks to me to be an original Bentley part, and not a modern replica. (Right) Steering column MS3934 in the Wadsworth car, as seen in 2010.
 
         
(Above) The steering column mounting to the Wadsworth car. This is standard 4½ Litre, with the rivet pattern for a standard 4½ Litre chassis visible behind the droparm.
The left-hand photo shows that the rear steering box bolt has been retained from the standard 4½ Litre mounting, with the bolted pattern strut gear modified to suit.
The front bolt goes through the top flange only.
 

Rear gearbox crossmember of the Wadsworth car, showing the drilling (partly covered by the spacer washer) for a “C” type gearbox. Blower frames were drilled as standard only
for the “D” type box which has, as seen here, the offside mounting lug offset further to the right. This is consistent with Wadsworth building the car on a standard 4½ Litre
chassis frame with Blower-pattern front crossmember and knuckles added.
 
     
     
  Source: Julian Walter (Owner)
Posted: Feb 24, 2014
 
     
2012
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  2012, Klaus-Josef Rossfeldt from RROC archive  
     
     
  Source: RROC
Posted: May 24, 2013
 
     
2012
Click on thumbnail for larger view
   
 
 

 

 
     
     
  Source: BDCWA
Posted: May 17, 2013
 
     
2006
In The Netherlands in 2006 / Owned by a BDC member
2002
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  Source: BaliesWeb
Posted: Aug 25, 2014
 
     
Click on thumbnail for larger view
   
 
 

 

 
     
     
  Source: Auto Car
Posted: Sep 20, 2007
 
     
Click on thumbnail for larger view
 
 

 

 
     
     
  Source: TopSpeed & Australian Land Rover Owners
Updated: Aug 25, 2014
Posted: Feb 15, 2007
 
     
Click on thumbnail for larger view
   
 
 

1931 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged. Reg. No.: GY 3904. Chassis Number: MS 3934. Engine Number: XR 3335, 4 cylinders, 4398 c.c. Coachwork: Le Mans Replica 4 seater tourer

In 1928 Tim Birkin, leading Bentley driver and Le Mans specialist, tried to persuade W. O. Bentley to approve the fitting of a Villiers supercharger to the current 4½ Litre cars which had already won the race in 1928 (and were to be second and third in 1929). Bentley was not in favour of the idea -- his belief was that if you wanted more power you added more litres -- but Birkin sold it to Woolf Barnato, chairman and main shareholder at the time. Birkin then got financial backing from the Hon. Dorothy Paget, and had his own 'private' team of four cars (later five) built in 1929.

In order to qualify for Le Mans in 1930, fifty cars of this type had to be built by the factory, and Barnato agreed to do this, the first public showing being at Olympia in 1929, the first cars going on sale in April 1930. 'Motor' magazine of April 22nd 1930 contained a road test of car UW 3761, chassis price being £1,450. Top speed was 103 m.p.h., petrol consumption 12m.p.g., and the servo brakes achieved a stopping distance of 24 feet from 30 m.p.h. - a phenomenal figure for those days. 'Autocar' tested another car, GH 6951, in September. This was priced at £1,720 with a Vanden Plas open 4 seater body. Top speed was 101 m.p.h., consumption 11 m.p.g., and the braking figures were almost identical to the previous ones. Both tests recorded acceleration from 10 to 30 m.p.h. in under 5 seconds, and 'Motor' achieved 10 to 75 m.p.h. in under 30 seconds.

At Le Mans, despite repeated tyre trouble, Birkin set a new lap record of 89.7 m.p.h., compared with his 1929 record of 82.9 m.p.h. in the Speed Six car. This new record remained unbeaten until the course was shortened in 1932. Birkin's cars were often used as pacemakers to break up the opposition - usually the Mercedes of Carraciola - at which they were generally successful, sometimes over-taxing themselves in the process.

Birkin's most notable achievement was in the French Grand Prix at Pau in 1930, when he came second to Etancelin's Bugatti at 88.5 m.p.h. His car was virtually a stripped sports car, while the rest of the field were genuine racing cars, mostly Bugattis and Delages, weighing less than half as much as the Bentley. In his own account of the race, Birkin likened his car to a large Sealyham surrounded by greyhounds. Oddly enough, he says that Etancelin was driving a Delage -- a curious error.

At the August 1932 Brooklands meeting, there was an exciting challenge race for 100 sovereigns between Birkin's red single seater car and John Cobb's 10 litre Delage. Birkin won by a fifth of a second at 125.1 m.p.h., his last lap at 137.5 m.p.h., compared to his Easter Monday record of 139.7 m.p.h. which stood until beaten in 1934 by Cobb's 24 litre Napier Railton.

The car for sale today has been meticulously rebuilt to the highest standards. The Le Mans replica body is immaculate and finished in the correct colour of British Racing Green. It has a current M.O.T. Certificate.

A magnificent motor car, described by one writer as being 'a possession above rubies', and to many the ultimate vintage car.

 
     
     
  Source: Coys of Kingsington Sale of Important Historic and Sporting Automobiles catalog, Dec. 14, 1988
Posted: Dec 27, 2006
 
     
Click on thumbnail for larger view

   
 
 

This photograph is from an advertisement by Connolly Leather in "Thoroughbred & Classic Cars" magazine, May 1980.

The car in this photograph was previously not identified as being Chassis No. MS3934 . But a reader has identified it on the basis of "identical to the 1980s photo (below) with chrome headlights, identical mudguards, identical lights, identical screens, identical mirror, identical everything etc." — From our regular contributor in the UK - Apr 01, 2013 (name withheld on request)

 
     
     
  Source: "Thoroughbred & Classic Cars" magazine, May 1980
Posted: Jul 31, 2008
 
     
Click on thumbnail for larger view
   
 
 

Car appeared in Daks Simpson Piccadilly clothier commercial in 1986.

 
     
     
  Source: "Queste" magazine, Issue Seven, 1986
Posted: Jan 24, 2006
 
     
 

The first 25 production Supercharged 4½ Litre cars where Chassis Nos. SM3901-SM3925, all with "smooth-case" blowers. The next 25 were Chassis Nos. MS3926-MS3950 and had "rib-case" blowers.

Production Blower Bentleys had handbrake handles made from rectangular stainless steel, whereas the five 4½ litre race cars for Tim Birkin had the "H" section handle, but were drilled for lightness.

 
     
     
  Source: Robert McLellan
Posted: Feb 20, 2008
 
     
EARLIEST RECORD OF HISTORICAL FACTS & INFORMATION
 
Chassis No. MS3934
Engine No. MS3937
Registration No. GY 3904
Date of Delivery: May 1931
Type of Body: 4-seater
Coachbuilder: Vanden Plas
Type of Car: N
   
First Owner: HANDLEY W R
 
     
  More Info: According to original Vanden Plas Coachbuilder records, this car was originally fitted with Body No. 1727 with a supercharged; 2-door, 4-seater (as 1725); apple green / black mouldings; 4/1931.

Michael Hay, in his book Bentley: The Vintage Years, 1997, states: "D/7246. Vanden Plas body no. 1727. Dismantled/rebuilt as 6½ Litre. Now rebuilt as Birkin replica on 9'9½" Wheelbase by H&H. Engine based on crankcase SM 3920 ex ch. SM 3918. S/C ex ch. SM 3924."
 
     
     
  Updated: Jul 06, 2007
Posted: Mar 01, 2007
 
     
 
 
 
Submit more information on this car
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photograph received from Simon Hunt for Chassis No. RL3439
Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Dick Clay for Chassis No. 147
Sep 29, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Ernst Jan Krudop for his Chassis No. AX1651
Sep 28, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Lars Hedborg for his Chassis No. KL3590
Sep 25, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. XV 3207
Sep 24, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. YM 7165
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