Bentley 3 Litre
Discussion
Unfortunately the car has been back at the garage again.
The end of the Rev counter cable broke off so have had to have a new one. The speedo cable pretty much disintegrated itself whilst we driving along falling into the road into tiny pieces. New cable for that as well.
It has been making some strange noises on the over run that turned out to be a loose fitting in the engine bay. The carbs also needed setting up.
Went to collect drove up the road decided to use all the revs as we have now have Rev counter to know. Lots of not good noises straight back to garage. Turns out wasn’t just the carbs various other small things off that only became an issue when going to the crazy height of 3500 rpm
4 hours of hard work for the guys at the garage engine is now running better than ever. Definitely going to need an engine out restoration soon though. As not totally confident the previous didn’t neglect the engine a little.
Anyway she is back at home driving well again!
Dad dropped off my Goodwood tickets for tomorrow and is on his way down in it this morning. I would love to join him but 3 year old and a wife means boring Range Rover for the trip down this evening.
The end of the Rev counter cable broke off so have had to have a new one. The speedo cable pretty much disintegrated itself whilst we driving along falling into the road into tiny pieces. New cable for that as well.
It has been making some strange noises on the over run that turned out to be a loose fitting in the engine bay. The carbs also needed setting up.
Went to collect drove up the road decided to use all the revs as we have now have Rev counter to know. Lots of not good noises straight back to garage. Turns out wasn’t just the carbs various other small things off that only became an issue when going to the crazy height of 3500 rpm
4 hours of hard work for the guys at the garage engine is now running better than ever. Definitely going to need an engine out restoration soon though. As not totally confident the previous didn’t neglect the engine a little.
Anyway she is back at home driving well again!
Dad dropped off my Goodwood tickets for tomorrow and is on his way down in it this morning. I would love to join him but 3 year old and a wife means boring Range Rover for the trip down this evening.
Got the 3 litre out for going down the coast for our family exercise. Been desperate to get it out since the weather turned sunny. Plus I think the car counts as exercise
This was quite special for me. As we have never been out in the car as a family. My son is mentally disabled, we have always shied away from taking him out. But now he is a little older decided to give it a go. He loved it which was awesome to share with him. He sat in the front out of the wind stuck his head out the side and had a had on the wheel helping me drive. Bit weird to share on PH but thrilled to share my passion with my son.
Car wise started on the button after a few months of being sat which was pleasant surprise, considering how often some of our other cars fail to start.
It drove great however unfortunately/fortunately all future plans to have major work done on the car are on hold. As My father is helping with build a new house.
Meanwhile since I got it out it has stayed out on the drive since and Dad is using it as his daily. It’s at Morrison’s at the moment
Doesn’t quite fit with my house so much.
Whole squad minus me.
Sorry not the most exciting update.
This was quite special for me. As we have never been out in the car as a family. My son is mentally disabled, we have always shied away from taking him out. But now he is a little older decided to give it a go. He loved it which was awesome to share with him. He sat in the front out of the wind stuck his head out the side and had a had on the wheel helping me drive. Bit weird to share on PH but thrilled to share my passion with my son.
Car wise started on the button after a few months of being sat which was pleasant surprise, considering how often some of our other cars fail to start.
It drove great however unfortunately/fortunately all future plans to have major work done on the car are on hold. As My father is helping with build a new house.
Meanwhile since I got it out it has stayed out on the drive since and Dad is using it as his daily. It’s at Morrison’s at the moment
Doesn’t quite fit with my house so much.
Whole squad minus me.
Sorry not the most exciting update.
Reservoir Sheds said:
Memories made for a life time there! I
I took my girl friend to a bentley event at Blenheim Palace last year when they were trying to get I think 250 bentleys together!?
Really are beautiful. With speed limits and traffic it appears you can have far more fun and a much more rewarding drive in your Bentley then just smashing the right hand peddle in a 911 and steering with your little finger!?
Yes they where trying to get as many as possible together to celebrate 100 years of Bentley. We where going to take ours until we saw the price was 4-500 to show your car. Which seems quite steep to us when they need our cars to make there show work. Guess we are to stingy I took my girl friend to a bentley event at Blenheim Palace last year when they were trying to get I think 250 bentleys together!?
Really are beautiful. With speed limits and traffic it appears you can have far more fun and a much more rewarding drive in your Bentley then just smashing the right hand peddle in a 911 and steering with your little finger!?
I wouldn’t want to say it is absolutely more fun than an outright performance car. Mainly because my Dad also has a Ferrari and couple of Porsche’s that give us that kind of thrill. I enjoy both equally.
What I will say though is that I have never gone for a drive in the Bentley and been disappointed. I have had days when I have gone out in the Ferrari and chosen the wrong day or time, found my self frustrated at being stuck in traffic. I drive both as a treat so in the Ferrari you want to let it go a bit, if you can’t feels like an opportunity wasted. To me at least.
Car is getting lots of use. Monday my son started his first day at a new special needs school which my wife has fought for 2 years to get him into, big win for us. Celebrated by going down the coast for fish and chips at Wells just the 2 of us. Picked my son up on the way back. Was just a really great day.
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|https://thumbsnap.com/SfnGgNHV[/url]
With the weather getting better decided to get the Bentley out for some fun and give my son some different stimulation.
Unfortunately it was short lived journey as it conked before I got it off the drive way Que much head scratching. Opened the bonnet to find petrol pouring out of the carburettor. It became clear that a pin that is triggered by a float to seal a hole in the bottom wasn’t ably to seal like it should. We couldn’t get the car to run for more than a carburettor full of petrol. Had to put it back in the garage for another day 
. Couple of days later Dad took it all apart found some bits of dirt in the bottom which must have stopped it shutting all the way.
My son had to settle for another green machine. He still loves it
Try number 2 last Saturday was much more successful. Started easy and ran flawlessly. It was 4 degrees with showers so wrapped up warm and just chased the blue skies to avoid the rain. It was actually really nice going out in the cold and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get back into driving it. I was a bit worried my gear changes would be all over the place.
Random pics.
My son being absolutely thrilled
Unfortunately it was short lived journey as it conked before I got it off the drive way
Que much head scratching. Opened the bonnet to find petrol pouring out of the carburettor. It became clear that a pin that is triggered by a float to seal a hole in the bottom wasn’t ably to seal like it should. We couldn’t get the car to run for more than a carburettor full of petrol. Had to put it back in the garage for another day . Couple of days later Dad took it all apart found some bits of dirt in the bottom which must have stopped it shutting all the way. My son had to settle for another green machine. He still loves it
Try number 2 last Saturday was much more successful. Started easy and ran flawlessly. It was 4 degrees with showers so wrapped up warm and just chased the blue skies to avoid the rain. It was actually really nice going out in the cold and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get back into driving it. I was a bit worried my gear changes would be all over the place.
Random pics.
My son being absolutely thrilled
Couple of weeks ago was our 7 year wedding anniversary which conveniently lined up with our sons first day back at school.
Made the plan to go for lunch at the Victoria in Holkham. On our way car started to misfire and just cut out when I had to stop to let a car through a narrow part of Mundesley. Luckily started again very quickly and I left it in second to try keep the revs up to try blow off any cobwebs. Pulled into the next car park, got the bonnet up everything looked ok and was ticking over happily. Continued on towards Cromer started to get the smell of petrol. As we entered Cromer a guy on a bike shouts that I’m leaking petrol. Pull over in the middle of Cromer open the bonnet to find two fountains of petrol coming out of the top of the little tank attached to one of the carburettors. By this point I’m getting the kind of death stares from my wife that could melt steal. As I get petrol all over my hands and arms, remember going for sophisticated lunch for wedding anniversary I manage to take it apart to take a look. I remembered that it was some grit in the bottom of the tank that caused this previously. Swished my fingers around the bottom of the tank and rubbed off the pin and float with a rag. Put it all back together started the car and no fountains.
At this point we decided to jump on the main road to head home to swap cars to make sure we can make it to lunch as time was getting short. Get about half way home the car is running great and we realise we might not have time to get home to swap and make lunch. As it was running great decided to turn around again and head towards Holkham again. By now what was 2 hours to make a 1 hour journey had become 45 minutes to make a journey that would take roughly that long in a normal car. Que the fastest piece of Bentley driving since John Duff and Frank Clement won Le Man in 1924 driving a 3 litre. It was the first time I felt I really felt confident driving her using all the revs and actually braking into corners with quick down changes with a big left foot blip of the throttle to get into third whilst braking to actually accelerate through tight corners. As opposed to kind of coasting in and relying on the torque to pull you through in fourth. The kind of car control Meaden, Harris, Bovingdon and Frankel dream of (I’m a massive fan of all of them). We even overtook a motor home and got to speed limit!!!
The upshot of this drive arrived 5 minutes early for lunch, my shirt totally sweat through and my hands wreaking of petrol. Can you feel the romance? Fortunately for me my wife is really cool about all of my car nonsense that I put her through. Had a lovely meal and pottered back to Sheringham to pick up our son.
When we got there I realised this was the first time picking him up since the high school his school is in the grounds off went back to normal. I was pleasantly surprised how many teenagers took an interest. I really hope the next generation don’t scrap these for a Tesla.
Ended up being a pretty great day. With the summer coming to an end and my house build hopefully coming to an end in February starting to look ahead to getting more done on the old 3 litre and some of the other cars we have.
Hope you enjoy the pics.
When we finally got to pub.
My wife looking glamorous me looking confused.
My son when we put him in the car to go home super excited and flappy.
Getting help to take it up to the garage.
As it’s ph got to get a pic of the wife in
As always apologies for the terrible writing and even worse attempts at humour. Hope it’s entertaining.
Made the plan to go for lunch at the Victoria in Holkham. On our way car started to misfire and just cut out when I had to stop to let a car through a narrow part of Mundesley. Luckily started again very quickly and I left it in second to try keep the revs up to try blow off any cobwebs. Pulled into the next car park, got the bonnet up everything looked ok and was ticking over happily. Continued on towards Cromer started to get the smell of petrol. As we entered Cromer a guy on a bike shouts that I’m leaking petrol. Pull over in the middle of Cromer open the bonnet to find two fountains of petrol coming out of the top of the little tank attached to one of the carburettors. By this point I’m getting the kind of death stares from my wife that could melt steal. As I get petrol all over my hands and arms, remember going for sophisticated lunch for wedding anniversary
I manage to take it apart to take a look. I remembered that it was some grit in the bottom of the tank that caused this previously. Swished my fingers around the bottom of the tank and rubbed off the pin and float with a rag. Put it all back together started the car and no fountains. At this point we decided to jump on the main road to head home to swap cars to make sure we can make it to lunch as time was getting short. Get about half way home the car is running great and we realise we might not have time to get home to swap and make lunch. As it was running great decided to turn around again and head towards Holkham again. By now what was 2 hours to make a 1 hour journey had become 45 minutes to make a journey that would take roughly that long in a normal car. Que the fastest piece of Bentley driving since John Duff and Frank Clement won Le Man in 1924 driving a 3 litre. It was the first time I felt I really felt confident driving her using all the revs and actually braking into corners with quick down changes with a big left foot blip of the throttle to get into third whilst braking to actually accelerate through tight corners. As opposed to kind of coasting in and relying on the torque to pull you through in fourth. The kind of car control Meaden, Harris, Bovingdon and Frankel dream of
(I’m a massive fan of all of them). We even overtook a motor home and got to speed limit!!! The upshot of this drive arrived 5 minutes early for lunch, my shirt totally sweat through and my hands wreaking of petrol. Can you feel the romance? Fortunately for me my wife is really cool about all of my car nonsense that I put her through. Had a lovely meal and pottered back to Sheringham to pick up our son.
When we got there I realised this was the first time picking him up since the high school his school is in the grounds off went back to normal. I was pleasantly surprised how many teenagers took an interest. I really hope the next generation don’t scrap these for a Tesla.
Ended up being a pretty great day. With the summer coming to an end and my house build hopefully coming to an end in February starting to look ahead to getting more done on the old 3 litre and some of the other cars we have.
Hope you enjoy the pics.
When we finally got to pub.
My wife looking glamorous me looking confused.
My son when we put him in the car to go home super excited and flappy.
Getting help to take it up to the garage.
As it’s ph got to get a pic of the wife in
As always apologies for the terrible writing and even worse attempts at humour. Hope it’s entertaining.
Time for a little bit of an update.
After some disastrous decision making we ended up with the drive way at the back of the house dug up for the lsat 6 months. Making it impossible to use any of the cars. Bit of a downer with all the good weather we have had.
Good news though. We fixed it! The bad news is all the cars now need MOTs, servicing or general love. Further proof that cars are happier when you use them!
My parents have been enjoying their new found post Covid freedom by spending as much time as possible at their holiday home and only coming back to jump on a cruise ship with their friends. Between a house build and work I haven’t had much time to drive much either.
However last Sunday decided on an impromptu drive to try stimulate our son. What was meant to be a 10 minute run around the block escalated too a drive to Blakeney. Got to keep Tim Birkin company after all. It was a lovely evening in Blakeney and had a paddle with my son in the water. Handy thing about a vintage car there isn’t much of an interior to worry about so you can just chuck wet stuff in the back.
Random pics.
One of my favourite stretches of road.
Getting washed as we put it away dirty before.
Excited on the way there.
Tired on the way back.
Not much to report otherwise. Hopefully be more interesting stuff going on when I pay my father back for the house build.
After some disastrous decision making we ended up with the drive way at the back of the house dug up for the lsat 6 months. Making it impossible to use any of the cars. Bit of a downer with all the good weather we have had.
Good news though. We fixed it! The bad news is all the cars now need MOTs, servicing or general love. Further proof that cars are happier when you use them!
My parents have been enjoying their new found post Covid freedom by spending as much time as possible at their holiday home and only coming back to jump on a cruise ship with their friends. Between a house build and work I haven’t had much time to drive much either.
However last Sunday decided on an impromptu drive to try stimulate our son. What was meant to be a 10 minute run around the block escalated too a drive to Blakeney. Got to keep Tim Birkin company after all. It was a lovely evening in Blakeney and had a paddle with my son in the water. Handy thing about a vintage car there isn’t much of an interior to worry about so you can just chuck wet stuff in the back.
Random pics.
One of my favourite stretches of road.
Getting washed as we put it away dirty before.
Excited on the way there.
Tired on the way back.
Not much to report otherwise. Hopefully be more interesting stuff going on when I pay my father back for the house build.
Time for a completely unrelated post, but as I have shared quite a lot of my life around the car thought I would share what has been quite an emotional day.
Back in 2020 during lockdown it started to become clear how severely disabled our son is, his issues going far beyond Autism. He was having bought of uncontrollable violence that was leaving my wife and I pretty battered. On one occasion an off duty please lady pulled my wife to one side at Tesco, offering to help her get away from her abuser. Very kind but the split lip, cuts and black eye had all been caused by our son.
We both became quite depressed as we faced the thought that this was what life was going to be like for us. No ability to travel, no doing things together as we couldn't get anyone to look after him or individually as coping with him alone was so difficult. I particularly struggled with this thought as I have always been deeply ambitious with dreams of racing and touring Europe in Ferrari amongst other things. At that point everything we wanted to do with our lives was off the table. I was 28 my wife 25, that's a lot of life ahead to do nothing with.
Fast forward to now!!! Living in our new home we built specifically to meet our sons needs, which he is much happier in. Also worked with a lot of professionals on how to keep him calm and also quite lot of medication. Unfortunately it was that or looking at him no longer living with us. Something my wife will fight to the death to avoid. We have a much more positive out look with solutions to still achieve most of our goals.
Which for me has of course been my desire for the last 10 years to have my own sports car and stop free loading off my dads garage With the house finished its finally time to start enjoying ourselves.
I had an Emira on order being a massive Lotus fan and a Norfolk boy. Unfortunately the whole experience just went a bit sour with me being unsure if I even wanted the car as I originally always wanted something light weight quite hardcore. I ended up looking at other things, I noticed a GT4 with all the bits I would have wanted at a substantially lower price than the Emira was going to cost. In a spur of the moment thing I went to see it had a test drive. . . . . . . . and I bought it!!! I just loved how race car urgent and connected the whole thing felt, but with just enough creature comforts to use.
The plan is to drive it as my daily which will include taking it all over Europe.
This feels very much like the end of those bad times and the beginning of getting everything going again. My wife has even discussed me doing regular trackdays so that I have some experience when we go racing in the future.
On Bentley related note went for first drive of the year in it day before collecting this. Much to my embarrassment I couldn't get it started. Ended up on the phone with my dad going through it all.Him being in Switzerland at the time.
Pulled the 2 switches for the mags? . . . . . yep
Main switch for the mags down?. . . . . yep
Pump switch down?. . . . . . of course it is Dad I know how to sta. . . . . . . . (annoyed silence as I look at pump switch up) hang on let me try something call you back.
Of course it started after a couple of goes having the petrol pump on
Back in 2020 during lockdown it started to become clear how severely disabled our son is, his issues going far beyond Autism. He was having bought of uncontrollable violence that was leaving my wife and I pretty battered. On one occasion an off duty please lady pulled my wife to one side at Tesco, offering to help her get away from her abuser. Very kind but the split lip, cuts and black eye had all been caused by our son.
We both became quite depressed as we faced the thought that this was what life was going to be like for us. No ability to travel, no doing things together as we couldn't get anyone to look after him or individually as coping with him alone was so difficult. I particularly struggled with this thought as I have always been deeply ambitious with dreams of racing and touring Europe in Ferrari amongst other things. At that point everything we wanted to do with our lives was off the table. I was 28 my wife 25, that's a lot of life ahead to do nothing with.
Fast forward to now!!! Living in our new home we built specifically to meet our sons needs, which he is much happier in. Also worked with a lot of professionals on how to keep him calm and also quite lot of medication. Unfortunately it was that or looking at him no longer living with us. Something my wife will fight to the death to avoid. We have a much more positive out look with solutions to still achieve most of our goals.
Which for me has of course been my desire for the last 10 years to have my own sports car and stop free loading off my dads garage
With the house finished its finally time to start enjoying ourselves. I had an Emira on order being a massive Lotus fan and a Norfolk boy. Unfortunately the whole experience just went a bit sour with me being unsure if I even wanted the car as I originally always wanted something light weight quite hardcore. I ended up looking at other things, I noticed a GT4 with all the bits I would have wanted at a substantially lower price than the Emira was going to cost. In a spur of the moment thing I went to see it had a test drive. . . . . . . . and I bought it!!! I just loved how race car urgent and connected the whole thing felt, but with just enough creature comforts to use.
The plan is to drive it as my daily which will include taking it all over Europe.
This feels very much like the end of those bad times and the beginning of getting everything going again. My wife has even discussed me doing regular trackdays so that I have some experience when we go racing in the future.
On Bentley related note went for first drive of the year in it day before collecting this. Much to my embarrassment I couldn't get it started. Ended up on the phone with my dad going through it all.Him being in Switzerland at the time.
Pulled the 2 switches for the mags? . . . . . yep
Main switch for the mags down?. . . . . yep
Pump switch down?. . . . . . of course it is Dad I know how to sta. . . . . . . . (annoyed silence as I look at pump switch up) hang on let me try something call you back.
Of course it started after a couple of goes having the petrol pump on
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