Bentley 3 Litre
Discussion
My dads health is very good no thanks
As it turned out the car came at just the right time as he retired earlier this year and it is keeping more than busy tidying it up and taking it out every chance he gets.
I am aware of the registry ours is on there I checked this morning. It's not the easiest site to use, will have to update of the cars new home.
The prices have gone up my dad payed £195,000 for ours in the end and you will pay £250,000 for a better condition one. But still a lot less than 4.5 litre which are now far above the half a million. I think it's because the 4.5 is on a bigger chassis which makes them look very nice in my opinion. Its all relative though 6.5 litres are 1.5 to 2 million. As one poster spotted the Blower in the background from memory that is one of the original 50 built and I think 4 million was mentioned. So all round you could say we got a total bargain!! hahaha.
In terms of the cars next long trip weather depending my dad will be at Goodwood in it for the revival if anyone sees him do come have a chat if you like. Unfortunately I can't go but I will be helping drive it back. Other than that my dad is taking great joy in being the village eccentric who drives it to Lidl to get the milk.
As it turned out the car came at just the right time as he retired earlier this year and it is keeping more than busy tidying it up and taking it out every chance he gets.
I am aware of the registry ours is on there I checked this morning. It's not the easiest site to use, will have to update of the cars new home.
The prices have gone up my dad payed £195,000 for ours in the end and you will pay £250,000 for a better condition one. But still a lot less than 4.5 litre which are now far above the half a million. I think it's because the 4.5 is on a bigger chassis which makes them look very nice in my opinion. Its all relative though 6.5 litres are 1.5 to 2 million. As one poster spotted the Blower in the background from memory that is one of the original 50 built and I think 4 million was mentioned. So all round you could say we got a total bargain!! hahaha.
In terms of the cars next long trip weather depending my dad will be at Goodwood in it for the revival if anyone sees him do come have a chat if you like. Unfortunately I can't go but I will be helping drive it back. Other than that my dad is taking great joy in being the village eccentric who drives it to Lidl to get the milk.
I've wanted a genuine W O Bentley since I was a toddler/small child and read about the exploits of the 'Bentley boys' and W O himself. Unfortunately there is absolutely no chance .... sob!
I do occasionally see a glorious old lady (which I think is a 4 1/2) go barrelling up the A38 near Exeter, it is always open and ALWAYS in the outside lane doing a trifle more than our current speed limit - I guess back in its day there were none so it's just in a time warp!
I may have mentioned before that I hate the fact Ze Germans have got our best brands and poor old W O must be doing about 4.5 thousand RPM in his grave.
I do occasionally see a glorious old lady (which I think is a 4 1/2) go barrelling up the A38 near Exeter, it is always open and ALWAYS in the outside lane doing a trifle more than our current speed limit - I guess back in its day there were none so it's just in a time warp!
I may have mentioned before that I hate the fact Ze Germans have got our best brands and poor old W O must be doing about 4.5 thousand RPM in his grave.
Thanks however 4 hours by the side of the road kind of proved maybe we shouldn't have been so ambitious to start.
Our thinking was these cars do Paris to Peking should do Watford to Norwich easy!!! To be fair one bit of soldering let us down other than that the car has been flawless it took 10 mins to fix.
Our thinking was these cars do Paris to Peking should do Watford to Norwich easy!!! To be fair one bit of soldering let us down other than that the car has been flawless it took 10 mins to fix.
r129sl said:
This is a great tale. I look forward to updates.
In the meantime, OP, are you familiar with the late, great Stanley Sedgwick and his magnum opus, Motoring My Way? SS was president and then patron of the Bentley Drivers' Club and his book is full of the most lovely tales of his adventures with various Bentleys, mainly an eight litre, but lots of other stuff, too. His first car was a 3-litre. If you can't find a copy but want one, let me know.
I've got a copy of that book - you are right it is a great read of motoring 50/60 years ago. Sedgwick had the first R Type Continental called "Olga" after its number plate.In the meantime, OP, are you familiar with the late, great Stanley Sedgwick and his magnum opus, Motoring My Way? SS was president and then patron of the Bentley Drivers' Club and his book is full of the most lovely tales of his adventures with various Bentleys, mainly an eight litre, but lots of other stuff, too. His first car was a 3-litre. If you can't find a copy but want one, let me know.
The book is well worth hunting out on EBay or Amazon. Mentioning it has made me want to go up into the loft to reread my copy.
ntiz said:
Other than that my dad is taking great joy in being the village eccentric who drives it to Lidl to get the milk.
Brilliant OP! I'd love to see that. That reminds me of a Top Gear episode when James May went to California to drive the Bentley Brian Johnson (formerly from AC/DC) uses as a daily over there!
Random update.
Though I would just do a quick update of the small stuff my dad has been doing to the car in his new found retirement.
When we collected the car we realised that not all the wheel bolts where the same some where rusty and others made out of different materials. So bought a whole new set so that they match.
IMG_1891 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Also fitted some side screens as apparently they stop a bit of the buffeting. The ones that it came with where plastic and not very well made so as we work with polycarbonate at our company we made some more up and mounted them.
IMG_1889 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Other small things making all the bolts holding the headlight protector on make match as where some how all different. Also we are looking into getting a new set of rear lights for it as the rubber ones on the back are all cracked so we thought would add chrome set to match the front of the car. Mechanically my dad has been fiddling with the clutch brake as we had a new clutch put on the car before collection it has worn in and the clutch brake needed adjustment.
Thats it for now so here are some more pics I took yesterday. Apologies for the poor photography the garage is quite tight with the other car in there and I was in a hurry promise to take some better ones next time. My dad actually read my post and as everyone seems so interested he will now be taking pics for me whenever he works on the car or takes it anywhere of note. We do share this account so he will post from time to time.
Tried to take a pic of the driving view as it's in my opinion one of the most special in the world what do you think? I should say you do actually sit lower in the car.
IMG_1887 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
And one of the interior.
IMG_1888 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Though I would just do a quick update of the small stuff my dad has been doing to the car in his new found retirement.
When we collected the car we realised that not all the wheel bolts where the same some where rusty and others made out of different materials. So bought a whole new set so that they match.
IMG_1891 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Also fitted some side screens as apparently they stop a bit of the buffeting. The ones that it came with where plastic and not very well made so as we work with polycarbonate at our company we made some more up and mounted them.
IMG_1889 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Other small things making all the bolts holding the headlight protector on make match as where some how all different. Also we are looking into getting a new set of rear lights for it as the rubber ones on the back are all cracked so we thought would add chrome set to match the front of the car. Mechanically my dad has been fiddling with the clutch brake as we had a new clutch put on the car before collection it has worn in and the clutch brake needed adjustment.
Thats it for now so here are some more pics I took yesterday. Apologies for the poor photography the garage is quite tight with the other car in there and I was in a hurry promise to take some better ones next time. My dad actually read my post and as everyone seems so interested he will now be taking pics for me whenever he works on the car or takes it anywhere of note. We do share this account so he will post from time to time.
Tried to take a pic of the driving view as it's in my opinion one of the most special in the world what do you think? I should say you do actually sit lower in the car.
IMG_1887 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
And one of the interior.
IMG_1888 by Elliot Simpson, on Flickr
Edited by ntiz on Thursday 24th August 09:27
Fabulous car OP, I vividly remember being passed by a vintage WO such as this on the M25 a decade ago in the pouring rain doing multiple leptons
It just looked achingly cool and the sight of it made me smile for a long time.
Enjoy yours in the best of health, hope to see if out and about one day.
It just looked achingly cool and the sight of it made me smile for a long time.
Enjoy yours in the best of health, hope to see if out and about one day.
I wonder how many fathoms of string it takes to make the steering work properly... and that whole windscreen/assembly - it looks like it was made by the same people who made those new fangled stainless steel surgeon's tools - either that, or by makers of beautiful, bespoke greenhouses from a bygone era!
Edited by ReaderScars on Thursday 24th August 18:03
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