1925 Bentley 3-Litre Boat-Tail Tourer

• Originally bodied by Vanden Plas as a 4/5-seat tourer
• Restored in the 2000s
• Present ownership since circa 2016
• Benefiting from recent servicing

With characteristic humility, Walter Owen Bentley ('W O') was constantly amazed by the enthusiasm of later generations for the products of Bentley Motors Limited, and it is testimony to the soundness of his engineering design skills that so many of his products have survived. From the humblest of beginnings in a mews garage off Baker Street, London in 1919 the Bentley rapidly achieved fame as an exciting fast touring car, well able to compete with the best of European and American sports cars in the tough world of motor sport in the 1920s. Bentley's domination at Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930 is legendary, and one can only admire the Herculean efforts of such giants as Woolf Barnato, Jack Dunfee, Tim Birkin and Sammy Davis, consistently wrestling the British Racing Green sports cars to victory.

W O Bentley had proudly unveiled the new 3-litre car bearing his name on Stand 126 at the 1919 Olympia Motor Exhibition, the prototype engine having fired up for the first time just a few weeks earlier. Bentley's four-cylinder 'fixed head' engine incorporated a single overhead camshaft, four-valves per cylinder and a bore/stroke of 80x149mm. Twin ML magnetos provided the ignition, and power was transmitted via a four-speed gearbox with right-hand change. The pressed-steel chassis started off with a wheelbase of 9' 9½", then adopted dimensions of 10' 10" ('Long Standard') in 1923, the shorter frame being reserved for the TT Replica and subsequent Speed Model. Rear wheel brakes only were employed up to 1924 when four-wheel Perrot-type brakes were introduced.

In only mildly developed form, this was the model that was to become a legend in motor racing history and which, with its leather-strapped bonnet, classical radiator design and British Racing Green livery, has become the archetypal Vintage sports car.
Early success in the 1922 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, when Bentleys finished second, fourth, and fifth to take the Team Prize, led to the introduction of the TT Replica (later known as the Speed Model and identified by the Red Label on its radiator) on the existing 9' 9½" wheelbase, Short Standard chassis. Bentley had made approximately 1,600 3-Litre models by the time production ceased in 1929, the majority of which was bodied by Vanden Plas with either open tourer or saloon coachwork.

Dr Clare Hay's authoritative work, Bentley, The Vintage Years, records the fact that Long Standard chassis number '954' was issued with the registration number 'KU 5705' in March 1925. The 3-Litre was supplied new to a Miss Frances Eliza Ingleby (later Mrs J E Hamilton) and bodied by Vanden Plas as a 4/5-seat Tourer. Some time later, 'KU 5705' was damaged in an accident and scrapped, its chassis being used to repair another damaged 3-Litre, 'YX 5984' (chassis number 'DN1729'). However, it is believed that part of chassis '954' was stored and later used as the basis of the resurrected 'KU 5705' (a chassis stamping stated as proof).

When the Bentley was offered for sale at a UK auction in October 2008, it came with a V5C registration document issued to chassis '954' for the UK registration number, 'KU 5705'. At that time the car was said to have recently benefited from a painstaking restoration, including a new radiator. Its chassis was described as a shortened 'Red Label'-style on the 9ft 9½" wheelbase, while the boat-tail body was said to have been 'acquired from another 3-Litre at enormous expense'.

The engine currently fitted to 'KU 5705' began life in 'EC 5874' (chassis '876'), which served as a fire tender at Brooklands from around 1934 until 1939. Renowned Bentley specialist Russell 'Rusty' Turner supplied the aluminium rear axle. The 2008 auction catalogue stated that the car was still being run-in having covered only some 300-or-so miles since the rebuild. The Bentley was described by the vendor as in 'very good overall' condition.

Our vendor purchased 'KU 5705' circa 10 years ago from The School Garage in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire. She had gone there to purchase an Alvis but ended up buying the Bentley as well! It is offered for sale today benefiting from recent servicing by a local specialist.