Info für Besucher ohne Javascript

Premium

Walter Owen Bentley OBE (1888-1971) - designer with heart and soul

This article was auto-translated. We apologize if some words are confusing or simply amusing. Would you like to help us improve?

Created on February 13, 2026

Text:

Martin Sigrist

Photos:

Archiv Bentley Motors

16

Archiv

19

Archiv Bentley Motors

16

Archiv

19

Bentley 4.5 Litre (1929) - WO Bentley in the 1960s

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3-Litre (1919) - Engine

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3 Litre (1923) - Start of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Benltey 3 Litre (1924) - Duff and Clement win Le Mans for Bentley for the first time in 1924

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3 Litre Le Mans (1925) - Duff and Clements in the 9 - Moir and Benjafield with the 10

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3 Litre (1926) Le Mans 1926 - Davis and Benjafield with the 7

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley (1927) Le Mans 1927 - The team, W.O. is in the center below the lettering with his name

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3 Litre Super Sports (1927) Le Mans 1927 - Sammy Davis and Dudley Benjafield, the winners

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley (1929) - The team at Le Mans 1929

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley Speed Six (1929) - at Le Mans

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 6.5 Litre Speed Six (1929) Le Mans 1929 - Woolf Barnato in Old Number 1 Speed Six

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 6.5 Litre Speed Six (1929) Le Mans 1929 - Tim Birkin in the Pontilieue Hairpin in the Old Number 1 Speed Six

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre (1929) Le Mans 1929 - 4 ½ Litre - Clement and Chassange changing drivers

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 6.5 Litre Speed Six (1929) Le Mans 1929 - Jack Dunfee

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 6.5 Litre Speed Six (1929) Le Mans 1929 - Barnato and Birkin

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre (1929) Advertisement for Bentley's wins at Le Mans

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1930) With 240 hp, they were at the zenith of their performance, but would not last 24 hours

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1930) Tim Birkin's aim in the supercharged Bentley was to put the Mercedes under pressure until it would malfunction, which it did

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1929) Le Mans 1929 - Tim Birkin in the 4 ½ Litre Blower built by him

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1930) Tim Birkin inspects and repairs a puncture

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1930) Le Mans 1930 - Bentley Blower on the Mulsanne Straight

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1931) -

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 6.5 Litre Speed Six (1929) Winner parade 1930, the 4.5 Litre Blowers were chased as rabbits by the compressor Mercedes until it broke, in the end the 1929 Speed Six won again

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower (1930) - Two-Seater by Guerney Nutting from the estate of Woolf Barnato

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 8 Litre (1930) - W.O. Bentley's former 8 Litre in the small factory museum in Crewe

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3.5-liter Derby Sports Tourer (1934) -

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley 3.5 Litre Derby Sports Tourer (1934)

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Lagonda V12 (1939) - Design drawing

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Lagonda V12 Saloon (1939) -

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Lagonda V12 (1939) - Chassis

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Lagonda 2.6 W.O. Bentley (1949)

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Aston Martin DB2 (1950) - Hood open

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Aston Martin DB2 (1950) -

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire (1953)

When logged in, you see more images in larger size.

Bentley BR1 (1918) Bentley's rotary aircraft engine

You have only

1 out of 35

images seen in high resolution

Summary

The early Bentleys from the period before 1931 are inextricably linked with their creator W.O. Bentley. Some outsiders attributed their elaborate yet robust design to the fact that Bentley had once completed his apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway's locomotive works in Doncaster. But the cars from Cricklewood were far more than Ettore Bugatti described them when he remarked that they were very fast considering that they were camions (lorries).

This article contains the following chapters

Aluminum, the wonder material
MBE and 8000 pounds of starting aid
Le Mans, crises and sales
Lagonda, the continuation by other means
Club member and late satisfaction

Estimated reading time: 7min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Walter Owen Bentley was born in London on September 6, 1888.He left school at 16 to complete a so-called "premium" apprenticeship in the workshops of the Great Northern Railway in Doncaster at the expense of the father of a family of 11 for 75 pounds a year, a very large sum. This lasted 5 years, of which Bentley was only allowed to actually work on locomotives for 18 months. Bentley recalled how this had turned out to be much different in the repair workshops than the youngster had imagined: "The underside of a car with a few thousand miles on the clock is a clinically clean place, like an operating theater, compared to a locomotive coming in for a major overhaul ..." So you can imagine the conditions under which such rail vehicles had to be worked on back then: on mechanics that first had to be exposed under a layer of oil, grease, soot and dust.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

Continue reading this article for free?

Images of this article

Source: