Rusty Bentley found in Stockport garage sells for £450,000

 

A rusty 1936 Bentley which spent the last 30 years locked up in a garage has sold at auction for £454,250.

 

The Bentley is "unusual" because it was assembled in the mid 1930s using parts which dated no later than 1931, H&H Classics said

 

The car was owned by World War Two pilot Charles Blackham, who took part in a raid on Adolf Hitler's Bavarian retreat, and was one of just six of its kind made by Bentley.

 

Mr Blackham, from Stockport, bought the car in 1952 for £260 and drove the classic convertible for 36 years. It was then locked up in his garage for three decades and only rediscovered after the 96-year-old's death in January.

 

The car, which now has "torn leather seats" and is "covered in rust", is one of just six WO Bentley 4.5-litre cars assembled by the service department from stockpiled and reconditioned parts in 1936.

 

Mr Blackham, was the Bentley's second owner

 

Damian Jones, head of sales at H&H Classics said the car - which was sold at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, on Wednesday - was the "ultimate Bentley barn find". It was sold for more than double its estimate.

 

"This Bentley is so unusual because it was assembled in the mid-1930s using a chassis and mechanical parts which dated from no later than 1931," he said. "Only the body was freshly made when the car was assembled and sold as a new car in 1936."

 

Charles Blackham (centre) served in the RAF 550 Squadron

 

Mr Blackham served in the RAF 550 Squadron and took part in the bombing raid of Hitler's famous mountain-top retreat in the Bavarian Alps in April 1945.

 

 

Source: Rusty Bentley found in Stockport garage sells for £450k