Happy Birthday! Walter Owen W. July 10, was a Thursday. In London it was pouring with rain. The maximum temperature of the day was just 11 degrees Celsius. On this cool and damp summer day, the British House of Commons accepted the application to establish a Ministry for Transport Ministry of Ways and Communications. Parliament stressed the importance of a national transport policy.
He emphasized that Czechoslovakia wants to live in peace with all its neighbors. Walter Owen Bentley founds Bentley But on July 10, , something else important happened, especially something with a promising future: The mechanical engineer, fighter pilot and racing driver Walter Owen Bentley — known to enthusiasts as W. The luxury brand, Bentley, is turning years young in the following days, July This anniversary, which is unusual in the automotive industry — it has only been achieved by a handful of companies so far — is the occasion to look at the history of Bentley, its current global success and its exciting future.
From its humble beginnings, Bentley has evolved into a premium brand with many strengths — an unconditional quest for luxury and performance.
All beginnings are fast W. Bentley was a passionate racing driver. He won some races with self-tweaked cars. In addition, W. Bentley sold numerous vehicles with elegant coachworks. These models were comparable to the Daimler and Rolls-Royce models.
The victories of Bentley at Le Mans in the s made the public sit up and take notice. They brought great attention to the company. Bentley thus conquered a leading position in the racing world in its early years. The brand continues to be one of the most important British automobile manufacturers — and the official supplier to the British Royal Family. Bentley, born in , was an enthusiastic engineer.
He despised the cars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: he regarded them as dangerous, complicated and noisy. So it was no surprise to the people around him when W. Bentley Motors was founded in October , and in September the first production Bentley left the factory and was delivered to its owner Noel van Raalte. The car cost 1, pounds, which was equivalent to the multiple annual earnings of a worker at the time.
The Bentleys of the s are among the most distinctive cars of this era. And not only visually: the development of racing engines was a passion of W. The legendary achievements of the so-called Bentley Boys a group of wealthy British motorists and the victories at Le Mans in , , , , and are particularly memorable.
The s brought many challenges for the Bentley brand. Despite racing records and public recognition, Bentley Motors ran into financial difficulties. It combined the best features of both brands — agility with luxury, power with silence. Woolf Barnato won the challenge in his 6. With its low roof and dominant bonnet, the Speed Six embodied the power, endurance and muscularity of the Bentley Grand Tourer. The move to Crewe in gave Bentley access to a community of highly qualified engineers and mechanics.
During the Second World War, they relocated to the busy industrial center. With advanced technologies and a new manufacturing concept, Bentley was now able to build a complete automobile for the first time. One of the first to be built not just as a standard chassis and body, but as a complete Bentley, was the Mark VI. In short, the Crewe factory is still a place where the precision of the present meets the passion of the past.
Woolf Barnato, a fan of Bentley cars and a member of the so-called Bentley Boys helped the company with financing which, however, gave him control over the company and made W. Despite that, the company was severely hit by the Stock Market Crash of that was followed by the Great Depression which dramatically reduced the demand for luxury cars such as Bentley. The real identity of the new Bentley owner, however, was revealed only after the deal was closed. Bentley factory in Cricklewood was closed.
The Crewe factory is now a place where the precision of the present meets the passion of the past. The advancements that came with the move to Crewe in the 40s allowed for Bentley Motors to transform good cars into luxury, high performance grand tourers.
In the Bentley R-Type Continental made its debut, a Mulliner-bodied coupe with a top speed of just less than mph. This made it the fastest four-seater car in the world and very quickly earned a reputation as the ultimate in high-speed luxury. It is the last Bentley to be built with no equivalent Rolls-Royce model for 30 years and three years later drop head coupe and sports saloon versions became available.
By Bentley had launched the new highly anticipated four-door Bentley Continental Flying Spur and the Bentley S2 was announced in It used an all-new 6.
The s brought continuous development to the Bentley Motors family. In the Bentley T series was launched and displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show, before it was renamed in to the Bentley Corniche and again in to become the Continental, as we know it today. The s is a landmark decade in the history of Bentley Motors. Bentley, dies aged 82 in August The s sees the Bentley identity developed and the beginning of the Bentley range and model line we know today. The Bentley Corniche is renamed the Continental in which is to become one of the bestselling models to date.
By half of the cars emerging from Crewe were Bentleys. Ten years after the introduction of the Mulsanne Turbo, Bentley began to outsell Rolls-Royce two-to-one. The acquisition of Bentley by the Volkswagen Group in added resource, new technologies and even greater impetus to the momentum of the Bentley renaissance.
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