Bentley Motors Ltd. was founded in January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley. W. O. was a passionate racing driver and drove prepared DFP cars himself. Together with his brother Henry, he began building his own cars under the Bentley name in 1919. By 1924, they had already sold 462 chassis of their only model at the time, the 3 Litre. By 1925, however, the number of chassis had fallen to 304. Sales figures declined and the Bentleys got into financial difficulties at the end of 1925. Woolf Barnato (later a three-time Le Mans winner in a Bentley 1928-30) prevented bankruptcy in February 1926 with a substantial financial injection. Despite further financial support from Barnato, 1930 saw the end of Bentley Motors Ltd. after eleven years and 3051 cars built.
The W. O. Bentley Circle of Friends was founded 30 years ago in response to a request from the English Bentley Drivers Club for a German equivalent. Only the cars of Walter Owen Bentley are admitted and are therefore limited to the years 1923 to 1930. You cannot register for this circle of friends yourself. If you want to become a member, you have to be appointed. Only if a place becomes vacant for whatever reason can a candidate move up. In the meantime, the Bentley Circle of Friends is already enjoying its third generation of car enthusiasts. Of course, they help each other with knowledge, experience and spare parts before and after the trips, but they do not see themselves as a club with all its statutes.
Every year, the Bentley Circle of Friends organizes a meeting for the 20 selected members in the home country of a member. At the end of August 2021, it took place in the Appenzell area, so that the Appenzeller Landsgemeindeplatz was transformed into a Bentley museum for once. The heavy and large Bentleys drove over the Schwägalp into Appenzell and enchanted the Landsgemeindeplatz, where the strapping men of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden rejected women's suffrage for the last time on April 29, 1990. It was then introduced anyway in November of the same year by legal means.
This was the only way that the German women's team with the oldest Bentley in the group, a 3 Litre from 1923, was allowed to drive on the course at all. But even the former Le Mans winners of 1924, 1927, '28, '29 and '30 were unable to discover the secret of the Appenzeller cheese.
