Bentley 4.25-Litre Tourer

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The 2,422 Bentleys produced between 1933 and 1939 are known as the 'Derby Bentleys' after the Rolls-Royce factory in which they were built. Rolls had secretly acquired Bentley Motors from the receiver in 1931 and was determined to honour the magnificent sporting heritage that came with this illustrious brand. Although the cars were based on the existing Rolls-Royce 20/25 and 25/30 models, they were much more than a badge-engineering exercise with considerably more powerful engines and a more sporting chassis.

Dubbed 'The Silent Sportscar' the first Derby Bentley had a 3.5-litre six-cylinder engine with a new cross-flow cylinder head, twin SU carbs and twin fuel pumps. Feeding its 105bhp through a four-speed synchromesh gearbox, the car was good for a genuine 90mph and was widely praised for its combination of speed, refinement and handling prowess. Even WO Bentley himself was reported as saying: "Taking all things into consideration, I would rather own this Bentley than any other car produced under that name."

Faced with increasing competition from the likes of Alvis and Lagonda, in 1936 Rolls enlarged the capacity of the engine to 4.25-litres which boosted the power to 126bhp, allowed a top speed of virtually 100mph and notably improved acceleration. As before, completed chassis were supplied to the leading coachbuilders of the time and a variety of stunning looking cars resulted, marking what was perhaps the peak period of the British coachbuilders’ art. Just 1,234 4.25-litre Bentleys were made before war put an end to production in 1939.

According to factory records in the history file, chassis number B196KT was ordered by George Heath Motors of Birmingham in March 1937 and was dispatched to coachbuilders Thrupp & Mabberly in June of that year to be fitted with sports saloon bodywork. The first owner of the car, GA Brittain of Hove, took delivery in December and appears to have kept the car until 1945 when it passed to a GH Martineau of London.

By 1960 the car had moved up to Staffordshire and had a couple more owners there before being shipped to New York in 1964 in the hands of a Mr I Davis. A receipt in the history file shows that in October 1965 the Bentley was then sold to a Sal Bianco Jnr by the Vintage Car Store of New York for $2,346. There is also a bill from earlier in the same year for a full engine rebuild costing $1,626. Little is known of the subsequent history of the car until it was acquired by the current vendor from the Real Car Company in Wales about 20 years ago.

By this stage the car was in quite a run-down state and the new owner, a professional car restorer and coachbuilder with many years of Bentley and Rolls-Royce experience, decided to embark on a total chassis-up rebuild. The Thrupp & Mabberly saloon body was discarded and, using drawings taken from a friend’s Bentley Vanden Plas Tourer, a completely new body was designed and built. As you can see this work was carried out to a very high standard using a seasoned ash frame and aluminium panels.

The chassis was also totally stripped and rebuilt as were all mechanical parts including a full engine rebuild. The restoration took around three years to complete and is fully documented by many photographs in the history file. Some 16 years down the line the car is still looking absolutely superb and is every bit as good underneath as it is up top. Indeed it has only covered 1,000 miles since the work was completed, as is evidenced by an almost unbroken run of old MOT certificates from 1994 to the present day.

Last year the car appeared in the BBC2 drama documenting Winston Churchill’s dogged wartime leadership, “Into the Storm”, broadcast in November, where it was driven by the actor playing Bomber Harris. In one memorable scene Harris is stopped by a policeman for driving the Bentley so fast that he could have killed someone. “Don’t worry Constable,” replies Harris, “I kill thousands of people every night.”

Altogether a magnificent old motorcar in lovely order throughout that is worthy of the closest inspection.