"Robert/Mona

Having driven many cars over the years I am convinced after 30+ years of ownership my car is well sorted and totally reliable, and goes much better than most.

It is a matching numbers car and a full known history as confirmed by Clare Hay. Whilst it does not have the original pot joints or cone clutch fitted, all these and all of the original parts are with the car and could be refitted, including the original crank, piston, rods etc. It was originally a VDP tourer, just as it is today, but the body was new after the fire. We did use a lot of the original things, door catches, locks, body supports and the complete floor.

Everything about the car is right and it has won many awards. At the BDC Concours in UK it won best 4.5 and the Chief Judges award. There were 450 Vintage Bentleys on the grounds that day.

The fire was a great turning point. Prior to that event it was a good old car. Like most cars went well but was an old car. The fire gave me the opportunity that after 20 years of ownership I knew what was needed. We did everything, I had a huge insurance payout, so cost was never a consideration. I had the contacts and expertise working for me to make sure everything was right.

The car today is still just as good as when we finished it in 2004. It has done 115K miles in that time. All vital signs, compression test, leakdown test etc are the same. We have employed a running restoration based on experience in that parts are replaced before that reach their use by date. For example, we have replaced the shackle bushes at 100K miles, not because they were causing a problem but as a precautionary measure.

I have seen 3,250 rpm in overdrive top or 106mph. I have records of every gallon of fuel and it average 15.6 mpg it uses about 1 litre of oil every 2000 miles, I could go on."

~~~

"I have a rally scheduled for mid 2018 that I have entered...

I would like to do a story about my car. We have just decided to do a "decoke" after 115K Miles (180K km) and the inside is remarkably good. We will re seat the valves and seats, but will use the existing rings. They are just the same as the day we put them in. There is no trace of any blow by the pistons, all we are having to clean is some varnish."

"I am about to sell the car."

This car is currently owned by Peter Graham.

"Couple of Pictures in Death Valley, Bonneville Salt Flats and Bluff New Zealand 2013."

"FYI, since going back on the road (26 October 2004) after the fire the SL3074 has done 93,000 MILES. That works out to an average of 28.9 miles every single day 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Do you know of a Vintage Bentley that is used more?"

"I should update the activity record of the car, to give a more complete picture. It has now done 130K Km and by the time it gets to New York in 2013 it will be closer to 160K Km since the last restoration. I should be in the US on a Bentley rally between May & July 2013"

(We look forward to receiving more information from Peter Graham. - VintageBentleys.org)

"Bentley 4½ Litre #SL3074 seen at the car park of Arundel Castle. A (very) long way from home in western Australia. The car has done 22.500 miles in the last 12 months!"

The Perth Darwin Rally has been recorded by others. But that was a great event.

We were entered in the Queensland rally centred on Sanctuary cove so it seemed logical to drive from Darwin. We elected to run our own pace and route for this trip and enjoyed the changes of scenery from parched desert to lush rain forests. Many surprises awaited us on this trip from the spectacular old houses in Rockhampton to the wonderful outback museum in Longreach.

The Queensland Rally was very brief and we were soon on our way home again to Perth via Sydney Melbourne Adelaide. This run from Melbourne to Perth has become quite familiar this time we left Brighton in Melbourne on Monday 9th August after a very pleasant breakfast with Roger Cameron (3 litre) and morning coffee with David Cohen (3/4½ Bentley). We ended up saying goodbye to my daughter at about 1.30pm and rested that night in Horsham (450km) . Up early the next morning and drove to Minnipa in South Australia (1,055km). An early start let us reach Balladonia (1,182) km on Wednesday evening for a leisurely steak. Arrived Perth (982km) by 4.10 in the afternoon on Thursday 12th, in time to collect the mail from the post office. This was SL3074 11th (and I think last) trip across the Nullarbor

The mileage is now 63,241 miles (101,780Km) since we put the car back on the road 26th October 2004. All vital signs are good.

When compared to the Bentley Motors chassis service records of this car in its first 10 years of life it clearly indicates the massive benefits that modern oils and fuel have been to old cars.

East of Katherine in Northern Territory Australia. This photograph was taken on the 3rd of July 2010.

This looked like a big year.

The car all spruced up for its American Holiday. Into a container and off to Vancouver in late April 2009.

The Bentley Alaskan rally has been recorded by many others and SL3074 completed the rally and won the award for the best WO on the event. We were scheduled to do the Bentley North Eastern Tour starting later in the year in Baltimore. It seemed like an adventure to drive from Vancouver to New York and it proved to be a great trip. Just Jennifer and me in SL3074. We saw many places and sights, the Spruce Goose in McMinnville, climb to Timberline and have the skiers wondering why anybody would be in an open car in the snow? Being in Yellowstone National Park for the 4th July. On to Denver to meet up with Kurt Furger and the novelist Clive Cussler and see his great collection of cars. Across more of the USA to Cleveland then on to New York. The car safely in storage for 6 weeks till we returned to do the New England trip. Also recorded by others.

Back into a container and home to Perth.

The speedo ending the year 2009 showing 49,360 miles (79,437 km) 22,579 for the year. Still with no problems other than adjustments.

YU4517's 80th Birthday party in Matjiesfontein in South Africa

The year started with the speedometer recording 22,643 miles (36,440 KM)

The trip to South Africa had gone well with no problems except using more oil than it should. To stem this flow we took the opportunity to fit a new set of gapless rings and the oil consumption was reduced to a negligible amount.

The Victorian Vintage Sports Car Club was running a Tasmanian Alpine rally with the company of a selection of other cars, Delage, Sunbeam, Bugatti etc. So we freighted the YU4517 to Melbourne, put the car on the overnight ferry to Tasmania and enjoyed a splendid tour of that pretty island. The return trip to Perth was by road. This trip is one of those trips that people say you should do once. 3,600 KM of some of the more open country in Australia, few petrol stops or motels. good roads very little traffic but almost nothing to see. The biggest concern is Kangaroos and camels. The Bentley normally manages this trip in 3½ days. There are more camels roaming across this part of Australia than any other part of the world. Everything with the car still fine but the overdrive was starting to slip a little so it came apart and was rebuilt.

The national Bentley Rally in September 2008 offered the chance to drive the Perth to Canberra to Perth round trip. SL3074 had done the crossing both ways several times but never both ways in one event. The National Canberra rally was a great event and allowed us to see the Australian Capital in a new light.

2008 ended with the speedo reading 35,330 miles (56,858 Km) so we had done just over 20,000 km in the year, with no problems.

1927 4.5 litre, Reg No: YU 4517, Engine No: SL 3074, Chassis No: SL 3074

"YU 4517 was delivered new to The Hon Edward Partington in October 1927 being the 12th 4.5 Bentley delivered to a customer.

Interestingly its first owner lived 400 yards from the house where my S2 Flying Spur was delivered 34 years later. The car was delivered wth a Sports tourer body by Vdp. This was changed by the original owner to a saloon after a few years. The author, WH Charnock, owned the car in the 30's and he featured it in his writings. By this time the body had again been replaced by an upright Albany saloon body after an accident.

By the late 60's YU4517 was in the ownership of Mrs Anne Klein in Philadelphia. In 1970 Mr Tony Townshend wrote to Mrs Klein telling her that he had found the original body and proposed to rebuild the car back to its original form, an offer she accepted.

After further changes of ownership it joined Irvine Laidlaw's collection of cars and travelled for a while to Singapore and Hong Kong.

I bought the car in 1980 while it was in England and shipped it to Australia. Whilst loving the car I had some doubts about it being the original body and felt it was a reproduction despite words to the contrary, perhaps due to lack of trust of the UK motor trade.

The car moved around Australia with me and was under a state of continual rebuild. It was used extensively for about 20 years. It was put into service for everything from being a removal van, a plant carrier, a shopping car, to being raced and rallied. In 2002 it caught fire on the trip home after attending the BDC rally in South Australia with tragic results. Getting the car back to West Australia we set about rebuilding the remains. It was then the truth about the body surfaced: I had burnt the original body, which is a great pity, as I had thought that it was a replica.

The car is now back to as good condition as possible. We have used every bit it was possible to salvage from the original remains. We decided to make several upgrades such as an overdrive, modern clutch, alternator, etc. Most of the work was done at home except for the timber body frame, painting and upholstery.

Re-riveting the chassis was a chassis was a challenge. Eventually we found a wonderful old blacksmith, who was the size of a small house. He had done his apprenticeship building railway wagons and knew everything about riveting, how to get them white hot, etc.

A Bentley chassis has 128 rivets and the memory of this man wielding a 28lb hammer all day as if it was a tooth pick will remain with me for the rest of my life. After straightening and re-riveting, the chassis went into a huge oven and was normalized. Since being back on the road we have done over 20K miles including 2 trips from Perth to Sydney and back, a journey of over 5,000 miles. The best single days run being 1,284 km.

The car has just returned from Kuala Lumpur where it came second in the concours to a superb Hispano Suiza H6c Bologna. Beating such cars as a Mercedes Benz 500K Cabriolet newly restored in Germany, a 4.25 Derby DHC.a 2900c Alfa, 2 Bugatti's and 160 other entries." - Owner, Peter Graham

In 2005, BDC Western Australia organised the first Bentley Drivers International rally in Australia attracting 50 entrants from nine countries. They started with their rear wheels in the Indian Ocean and finished with their front wheels in the Pacific Ocean north of Sydney.

Photograph was taken in the Nullarbor plains region of Western Australia.

This picture taken in 1993 at the Mallala circuit in South Australia. It was taken during the running of the "Grand Prix Rally" of 1993. Two hundred and fifty cars entered my Bentley was the 3rd oldest car. We came 3rd on handicap. Not a good result, we liked to win this event on Handicap.

The event was won by a 1993 Porsche Turbo driven by Jim Richards, the Australian Champion Saloon Car Driver, with a professional navigator and a full back-up crew. We drove our car 500 miles from Adelaide to Melbourne, did the event and drove home. No support crew, no back up just a couple of old blokes in an old car.

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1927 4½ Litre, Bentley Chassis SL3074, Engine SL3075, Registration No YU4517
VDP Sports Tourer delivered 17 Oct 1927. The 12th 4½ Litre Bentley delivered to a customer.

This car was purchased by Peter Graham in 1980.

This photograph is from an advertisement by Stanley Mann in "Thoroughbred & Classic Cars" magazine, August 1982.

Text in advt reads: 1927 4½ Litre Bentley Tourer

Advertisement by Coys of Kensington in "Classic Car" magazine, September 1974. Text says: "The example above is a Vanden Plas replica by Phillips (vide p.98 "Bentley: Fifty years of the Marque" for Johnnie Green's comments Phillips' work)."