Sep 10, 2018: Sold

Found on Fiskens website on March 14, 2018

1929 Bentley Speed Six Le Mans
Chassis Number: BA2580

Picture the scene in the Bentley camp at Le Mans in 1929. Winners of the two most recent editions of the race in 1927 and 1928, the appetite for a hat-trick victory must have been contagious. The Bentley Boys were undoubtedly the most dashing group of drivers the La Sarthe paddock had ever seen. The new 6.5 litre Speed Six was strong, powerful and ready to prove itself at the world’s toughest race. Place all this within an era – the Roaring Twenties – known for its excesses, glamour and sophistication and the stage is set. Team Bentley was on a veritable roll.

1929 turned out to be one of the most attrition-filled editions in the race’s history. Despite this, Captain Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato and the legendary silk-scarfed and extremely rapid Sir Tim Birkin piloted a Speed Six – later to be known as ‘Old Number One’ - to outright victory, followed by a trio of 4.5 litre Bentleys claiming second, third and fourth places respectively. Huge celebrations commenced, including a huge party held by Barnato at his country pile in Surrey where the drive was turned into a racetrack and the bars were fashioned as pitstops! ‘Old Number One’ was brought out for another victory at Le Mans in 1930, with Barnato still in the saddle, joined by a new driver in the form of Bentley Boy, Glen Kidston. So proud was W.O. Bentley of the Speed Six that he declared it his favourite car.

Le Mans rules required that cars raced must be production catalogue models. This ensured that the Speed Six was quickly introduced for sale to the general public. Out of 544 6½-litre examples made in Cricklewood, just 182 were to Speed Six specification. This example, BA2580, was originally fitted with a fixed head coupé Gurney Nutting body as ordered by Bentley Motors prior to its sale. The first owner is listed as C. Bruce-Gardner of Stafford, London and the Speed Six was furnished with registration number UU 6922. The service record shows a transfer of guarantee to William Ruben Doe of Hounslow in November 1930 and to Errol Hignett of Henley-On-Thames in 1932. The service record is continuous through to September 1938 with no further change of owner listed.

Sometime during the following years, BA2580 was shipped to Malta, probably by owner Lieutenant Colonel J.A. Sammut, who is listed in Bentley Drivers’ Club records as the owner between 1947 and 1955. Its history file contains wonderful images of the Bentley on Malta where it stayed during the war, eventually returning to the United Kingdom to be enjoyed by a number of documented owners prior to its purchase by Lord Doune. Doune restored the Speed Six with Vanden Plas style four-seater touring coachwork and retained it within his fabled motor museum from the 1960s until the late 1990s.

The current owner acquired BA2580 in 2013 and set about completing a painstaking three-year restoration with revered restorer, Neil Davies. Realising the significant place that ‘Old Number One’ held in British motoring history - a car that ceased to exist in its 1930 Le Mans-winning guise - BA2580 offered the possibility to truly reincarnate the legendary Le Mans winner, whilst maintaining all its original matching number parts. As a tribute to ‘Old Number One’, the body and fittings are an accurate reincarnation, including the wire mesh fold-down screen with the twin aero screens behind and Zeiss headlamps with a stoneguard fitted to the offside only, as these cut down the light considerably in racing conditions. The owners of the two surviving original team cars allowed every detail of their Bentleys to be scruntinised and reinterpreted. Copies of Bentley and Draper hydraulic shock absorbers are fitted front and back, a racing petrol tank, sized for Le Mans, has been added, a Racing D gearbox and the instrument panel and layout is copied from a photograph of ‘Old Number One’.

With a continuous, matching numbers history, this Speed Six is accompanied by a rich file of period correspondence and photography, from its time in Malta to the proud role it played in Lord Doune’s collection. Since restoration was completed late last year, the Speed Six has been enjoyed on the Royal Concours tour and has been beautifully settled in. It offers, without doubt, the ultimate in vintage Bentley motoring and it drives as well, if not even better, than it looks!

BA2580 at Hampton Court Palace's Concours d’Elegance Motor Show in London, September 2017.

1929 Bentley 6½-Litre Speed Six Tourer
Bonhams Paris Auction
7 Feb 2013

Chassis no. BA2580
Engine no. BA2584
Sold for €828,000 inc. premium

'It is extraordinarily difficult to explain in words or writing the exact fascination of a big, fast car of the type so ably represented by the big Bentley speed model.' The Autocar on the Bentley Speed Six, September 5th, 1930.

Although the 6½-Litre had been conceived as a touring car to compete with Rolls-Royce's New Phantom, in Speed Six form it proved admirably suited to competition: in 1929 Barnato/Birkin's Speed Six won the Le Mans 24 Hour Race ahead of a trio of 4½-Litre Bentleys and Barnato/Kidston repeated the feat in the following year's Grand Prix d'Endurance at the Sarthe circuit ahead of similarly-mounted Clement/Watney. Small wonder then, that the fast yet refined 6½-Litre Speed Six was W O Bentley's favourite car.

Walter Owen Bentley established Bentley Motors in 1919 in the North London suburb of Cricklewood, though deliveries did not begin until 1921. The first model, a 3-litre car, was powered by a four-cylinder, single overhead camshaft engine with four valves per cylinder. It was a mechanical theme perpetuated in the greatly refined six-cylinder 6½-Litre model of 1926. The need for a larger car had resulted from Bentley's customers specifying bodies of a size not envisaged when the 3-Litre was conceived, a factor only partially addressed by the introduction of the Long Standard chassis in 1923. The 6½-Litre was produced for four years, during which time 544 chassis were completed, 182 of these to Speed Six specification.

According to Michael Hay's authoritative work, Bentley The Vintage Years, this 6½-Litre Speed Six on the 'SP2' (11' 6") chassis was originally fitted with saloon coachwork by Gurney Nutting. Its first owner was one C Bruce Gardner of Burton House, Stafford. Supplied via Jack Barclay, the Bentley was originally registered 'UU 6922', then '70 CPF' and finally 'JSO 100', its current UK registration. Damaged 'by enemy action' during the war, the Speed Six received a new Vanden Plas-style tourer body circa 1971 when it came into the possession of Lord Doune's collection in Scotland. We are advised that the car retains matching chassis/engine numbers.

In the late 1990s the Speed Six was purchased by German collector Helmut Karbe, who had it specially prepared for the 'Around The World' rally, an 80-day marathon run between 1st May and 18th July 2000. Modifications made for this most arduous undertaking included installing a roll bar, under-tray, special seats and safety belts, altered exhaust system (to enable the car to ford rivers) and twin fuel tanks of 150 litres each. Despite being the oldest car in the rally, the Speed Six successfully completed the event having covered more miles in 80 days than most modern Bentleys do in a year. All parts removed prior to the rally, including the seats, come with the car, which is still being used regularly for Alpine events.

Offered with technical appraisal (dated 20.11.2012), valid German Fahrzeugbrief and TüV, this magnificent Bentley Speed Six has to be the ideal acquisition for the enthusiast driver wishing to undertake long-distance rallies and touring events in true Vintage style.

"I purchased the car out of the Sterling Museum - Shotland for a ralley - Around the World in 80 Days - in the year 2000. I complieted the ralley successfully with the oldest car. 2 years did need the restorer Eddi Berrisford, England for this exceptional job. — The car has still matching numbers, not the body, as you can see, the bodycange did the Sterling Museum 1971."

80 Days Rally 2000, Michigan

Featured in the TV mini-series 'Around the World in 80 Days'.

These photographs were taken between late-1950s and early-1960s.

Chassis no: BA2580
Coachbuilder: Gurney Nutting