RE: Bentley plots first ever pre-war continuation car

[Tom Hardman]

Nothing new here, specialists have been building replicas for years and probably forgotten more than the Crew Bentley Boys will ever know intellectually. All parts are available off the shelf if you know where to look and who to ask....

[PATTERNPART]

Bonkers!

And couldn't be driven on the road registered legally.

I go to Silverstone every summer to watch the Bentley Drivers Club annual race meeting. Blowers are among the slower cars due to their great weight and unwieldy handling.

They do make impressive and comfortable 4 seater tourers on the road but see above!

[Bill Ferry]

Just to say, and without being contentious..
Pur Sang build pretty nifty pre-war ALFA and Bugatti replica's.. Jay Leno always seems pretty chuffed with his.
Closer to home, dear ALVIS builds copies of its' pre-war 4.3, with modern [?] disc brakes and impressive fuel injection.. they are impressive, and very beautiful, and in every way would be my instant choice. But, alas.. life's oldest story intervenes. Back to the Lottery fairy then.!
Isn't life a b#gger.
WF,

[sideways sid]

skylarking808 said:

Just want to say I would love to have a go at driving one.

Must be a challenge and a hoot!

Saw one parked in Gloucestershire a couple of weeks ago and thought the same thing!

[sideways sid]

I wonder why every part will be 3D scanned, if most will be made from original moulds and jigs.

The article said:

...3D scan every individual part, and then recreate the car using the original moulds and jigs and traditional hand tools.

[rev-erend]

Brilliant idea.

Put me down for one

[mark beavan]

Hmmm....

Why would anyone want to buy one of these for (I'm guesing) several million pounds, when they could spend half a million and have a really nice, genuine 3/4.5 which would stop better, steer better, go better and (in my view) look better.

[ntiz]

mark beavan said:

Hmmm....

Why would anyone want to buy one of these for (I'm guesing) several million pounds, when they could spend half a million and have a really nice, genuine 3/4.5 which would stop better, steer better, go better and (in my view) look better.

Or if you have your heart really set on a blower buy a real 4.5 add blower. Spend the change racing.

[RichB]

This really is bizarre, There are so many Blower Bentley replicas and recreations out there already that any one that wants one can go out and get one. What's the point of VW making more?

[Venturist]

RichB said:

This really is bizarre, There are so many Blower Bentley replicas and recreations out there already that any one that wants one can go out and get one. What's the point of VW making more?

Slice of the pie.
And whilst the recreations can say they’re indistinguishable from a Bentley, only Bentley can say it IS a Bentley.

[WonkyPointing]

bloomen said:

None of them have managed it so far so I'll guess it's a no.

I presume buyers will simply stick the plate of their original on it and hope they don't get pulled.

None of who haven't managed what?

[MummyDust]

Awesome! I wish I wasn’t poor.

[Kubevoid]

I assume these will come with a giant Toad in tweed to pilot the thing.

[ntiz]

Venturist said:

RichB said:

This really is bizarre, There are so many Blower Bentley replicas and recreations out there already that any one that wants one can go out and get one. What's the point of VW making more?

Slice of the pie.
And whilst the recreations can say they’re indistinguishable from a Bentley, only Bentley can say it IS a Bentley.

Still in the same boat that they won’t be considered real ones though.

What do the guys at Crewe actually know about building one of these? Bentley don’t offer any support to the vintage cars. Wouldn’t shock me if they are actually going to give it to one of the specialists.

[thegreenhell]

WonkyPointing said:

bloomen said:

None of them have managed it so far so I'll guess it's a no.

I presume buyers will simply stick the plate of their original on it and hope they don't get pulled.

None of who haven't managed what?

None of the other OEMs producing these 'continuation' cars (i.e. Jaguar and Aston Martin) have managed to offer road legal status to these cars, although they can subsequently be modified to pass IVA.

[stavers]

thegreenhell said:

WonkyPointing said:

bloomen said:

None of them have managed it so far so I'll guess it's a no.

I presume buyers will simply stick the plate of their original on it and hope they don't get pulled.

None of who haven't managed what?

None of the other OEMs producing these 'continuation' cars (i.e. Jaguar and Aston Martin) have managed to offer road legal status to these cars, although they can subsequently be modified to pass IVA.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find there is nothing that can be done to one of these to get it past an IVA.

I am sure that, when the whole Pur Sang replica issue was in it's fairly early stages, a genuine GP Bugatti was put through an IVA just to see what would happen. It basically failed everything except for braking. Can't see this being any different.

The "newer" continuations at least have all the brake lights, indicators, levers all inside the car stuff that would make an IVA more passable. But even then I'm not sure how they would pass all of the IVA stuff without a rather lenient examiner! But good luck to them if they can.

[Sway]

Venturist said:

RichB said:

This really is bizarre, There are so many Blower Bentley replicas and recreations out there already that any one that wants one can go out and get one. What's the point of VW making more?

Slice of the pie.
And whilst the recreations can say they’re indistinguishable from a Bentley, only Bentley can say it IS a Bentley.

Those recreations, or at least the ones I'm aware of Are Bentleys. Just regular 4 1/2l ones upgraded to Blower spec.

[Roy C]

IIRC W.O. Bentley was quite sniffy about Birkin's "blowers" and he was probably right, as they weren't successful and lost Birkin and Dorothy Paget a lot of money. VAG and Bentley have seen the money Bob Petersen makes for his "recreations" and probably want a piece of the action plus the publicity.
Somehow, I don't think they will be building them in Welwyn Garden City...

[The Vambo]

I can't want to see some of Porsches pre-war continuation stuff.

[dinkel]

Lohner!