Bentley
Bentley Motors is a car manufacturer in Crewe UK and is owned by the Volkswagen Group. After Walter Owen Bentley had worked on aircraft engines during the First World War, he turned his attention to car manufacturing in 1919. In this year, the first prototype of a 3-litre car with a four-cylinder OHC engine and four valves appeared. The 3 Litre was built in Cricklewood, north of London, from 1920. This was followed in 1926 by a larger model with a 6.5-litre six-cylinder engine and in 1927 by a 4.5-litre four-cylinder, which was also equipped with a supercharger (‘blower’) by Tim Birkin. Bentley was successful at Le Mans with victories in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. A large 8-litre Bentley followed in 1930, but economic bottlenecks led to the sale of the brand to Rolls-Royce in 1931. The models built from 1933 to 1939 as the ‘Derby’ Bentley under the new owner had engines with a capacity of 3.5 and 4.25 litres. After the Second World War, the Bentley MK VI was the first new model to emerge from the Crewe factory. Bentley and Rolls-Royce were subsequently technically almost identical. In 1970, Rolls-Royce and Bentley split from the aircraft engine sector. In 1980, the company went to Vickers PLC. The latter sold Bentley and the Crewe plant to Volkswagen in 1998, while the brand rights to Rolls-Royce were acquired by BMW. In 2003, the Bentley Continental GT appeared, the first Bentley to be developed entirely under VW management.
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