Die Cast - Summer 2012

That propensity for rapid pace came out of Walter Owen’s WW I experience as a world-class designer and maker of aluminum pistons, something he’d first mastered in 1912, when he installed a set of lightweight slugs and a new cam into a French DFP car. That machine set records at Brooklands in 1913 and 1914. By the time war broke out, so advanced was his technology that W. O. was personally dispatched to all airplane engine makers in Britain and France to share his technique face to face. For that, he was awarded an MBE by King George V.

Unfortunately, once
hostilities ended, W.O.’s
chivalrous reputation and
shallow bankbook couldn’t
float the company, and after
1925, Bentley Motors became
something of a plaything for
“Bentley Boy” driver/diamond
heir Woolf Barnato. W. O. Bentley
stayed in the fold, putting his
name on bigger and better
engines and cars, but it wasn’t
enough; despite securing five
Le Mans victories between
1924 and 1930, Bentley
still couldn’t outrun
the Great Depression.

Barnato pulled out, and Rolls-Royce bought the marque out of receivership in 1931. Bentley himself exited in 1935, and went on to work for Lagonda, designing engines.

Years passed, and the line
between Rolls-Royce and
Bentley continued to blur. Then,
in 1952, a new car emerged from
the works at Crewe. Though it
shared some R-R mechanicals
and a good dose of the Rolls
aesthetic and proportions,
this one was different under
its skin. In fact, even its skin
was different; designed by J.P.
Blatchley, tuned in a wind tunnel,
and hammered out of aluminum
instead of steel, the car’s shape
was designed to be unflappable
and quiet at high speed. It would
carry a specially tuned 4. 5 liter
in-line 6, weigh around 3,700
pounds, and prove itself the
fastest four-seat car in the world.
Rolls-Royce/Bentley had finally
designed a car that carried W. O.’s
spirit into the present day. They
named it the R-type Continental.

The Winged “B” was introduced at a time when Bentleys were among the fastest cars in the world. The Continental R was the first Bentley in years to deserve the ornament.