BENTLEY
Surprisingly, the history of Bentley Motors began with... other cars. To be more exact - with lightweight aluminum pistons, which Walter Owen Bentley in 1912 invented to put instead of iron ones on the engines of French cars DFP, which he sold together with his brother in the company "Bentley and Bentley".
Walter Owen Bentley, whom everyone simply called W.O. (Walter Owen), an engineer by training, was dissatisfied with the performance of the DFP because he believed that the best automotive advertising was primarily about winning races.
W.O. received an engineering degree from Bristol College and worked for a time as an apprentice engineer for the railroad. At age 20 he raced in motorcycle races, including twice in the famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy.
And in 1919 he registered the company Bentley Motors Ltd and in two months already presented a new chassis at the London Motor Show. The first car was ready in 1921.
True to his notion of car advertising and encouraged by the sales results of the DFP after several record-breaking attempts and the hype surrounding them, W.O. took up motorsport to increase sales of his own cars.
The first race in which Bentley participated was the Indianapolis 500 Mile in 1922. At the wheel of a modified Bentley was Douglas Hawkes along with mechanic "Bertie" Browning. It is noteworthy that among the 27 cars started in the race, for various reasons, finished only 13, and just thirteenth was the Bentley of Douglas Hawkes, who safely completed all 200 laps and thereby proved the reliability of new cars.
Birkin was the first person to come up with the idea of squeezing more power out of a 4½-litre Bentley by installing a supercharger. And when Bentley Motors refused to fulfill his order, he decided to do it himself.
And that's what it is:
Without a supercharger: civil model - 110 hp (82 kW); racing model - 130 hp (97 kW).
With supercharger: civil model - 175 hp (130 kW) and 3,500 rpm; race model - 242 hp (180 kW) and 2,400 rpm.
In 1929 Birkin entered the Brooklands 500-mile race, but a damaged exhaust caused the car to catch fire during the race. Birkin put the car out and continued racing.
Henry Birkin competed in other races, and W.O. Bentley called him "The Most Outstanding Briton of His Time.
In the 1930s, the Great Depression affected the company. Chief investor Wolf Barnato decided to save his money rather than invest it in cars. By that time, the Bentley Blower had been produced and was on the list of the most celebrated and charismatic cars in the world. But in the economic crisis, the production of 50 copies of these cars hastened the collapse of the firm. In 1931, the company was sold at auction. It was bought by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Bentley himself began working there.
Rolls-Royce radically changed "Bentley", turning cars of the independent brand into its own line with a special emblem. But already in the 80s it was decided to return the brand to its original image. Rolls-Royce did not have time to implement the ideas, as he himself faced a crisis. "Bentley was bought out by Volkswagen.
Now this manufacturer continues to work on sporty and comfortable vehicles. The new Bentley Continental GT has been released, which knows no analogues in its category. The company intends to continue to be a leader in the production of cars in the Gran Turismo class, reviving and maintaining the tradition of "Bentley".
Parts
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Bentley Bentayga
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