Chassis 237 at Duxford, 1979

"In 1955 my father bought a 1934 3.5 litre Rolls Bentley which was a delight to drive. My brother Bryan and I jointly ran an old Morris 10/4 and he now suggested we should get a better car. We were both rather taken with a 1923 3 litre Bentley that was for sale in a local garage. It was not a perfect specimen having been fitted with a homemade body which had a bench front seat, which three people could just squeeze across, a stubby back carrying the spare wheel and home made cycle type wings, but it had enormous eye appeal. It also had the more desirable short chassis and higher back axle ratio of the more sportier 3 litre cars. A test run driven by the garage proprietor, who was a competitive driver, was very exciting and we decided to put the Morris on the market. Luckily the work we had done meant we sold it for twice the purchase price which made the Bentley much more affordable so that in April we became the proud owners of MB 2326.

Needless to say there was quite a lot of work which needed doing to this car. We were very lucky at this point to be introduced to Sid Cooper who was reckoned to be the best Bentley mechanic in the Birmingham area having been trained at the Bentley dealership of George Brown. Sid had just decided to set up on his own account and was happy to give me (I was the engineer, my brother had few skills) advice about our car. The autovac had been replaced by an SU electric pump and the Smiths carburettor replaced with a downdraught Stromberg which necessetated the inlet manifold to be inverted and a crude cover cut into the bonnet. He reckoned that it had originally had Vanden Plas touring bodywork but from the amount of rusting to some of the wheel spokes and rear chassis that the car had been laid up during the war with the rear end in the open and the body had rotted beyond repair.

Early on, after a near miss, I decided the brakes needed sorting out. These early Bentleys had been made with rear wheel brakes only and our car had been fitted with a later front axle that had brakes, believed to be from a 4 litre car, but the linkage had not been made correctly and the the original rear wheel brake compensation shaft had been retained so that they were not very effective. Sid managed to supply a compensation shaft from an 8 litre car and I made the correct linkages after which the the brakes were excellent.

Then we found that the original steel tubes that drained the oil from the overhead camshaft had corroded where they passed through the water cooling, which meant that water was draining into the sump. Bentley engines had no removable cylinder head so to cure this meant stripping the block right down and rebuilding the cooling system using copper tubes and side plates. To help save costs I removed the corroded side plate screws, retapped all the fixing screw holes and cut, drilled and fitted the new aluminium alloy side plates. As all the camshaft and valve gear had to be removed to do this a complete top end overhaul was carried out by Sid at the same time. Once all this was done it was a very pleasant car to drive but I would have liked to have tidied up the coachwork.

At the end of October I had my calling up papers to do my National Service and went to Cardington to begin two years with the R.A.F. My brother Bryan now had his eyes on another Bentley, XY 1477 of 1925 which had been converted into a truck by two builder brothers. That car will be dealt with later.

Having bought the new car, MB 2326 was now laid up as he had plans for it. Later he and a friend built new bodywork and put it back on the road. When I returned from the R.A.F. he had decided to do other things and MB 2326 was up for sale."

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I will send a shorter piece about XY 1477 with pictures shortly followed by the same for PN 148.