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41 curiosities about Bentley Motors through the years
Cooling capacity of a Bentley’s air-conditioning system is equal to
that of 30 domestic refrigerators.
Air-conditioning was provided as standard for the first time on the
Bentley T in 1969.
Sixty per cent more veneer is used in today’s cars than was used 20
years ago – as much as 6.5sq.m (70sq.ft) per car.
No other manufacturer provides as many spot welds on each bodyshell
– 6,500.
A Bentley 3-litre set the lap record and finished fourth at the
first Le Mans in 1923 – even though it was almost alone in the field
in having no front brakes.
Bodies pass through 16 stages of development and 120 separate
processes in the Paint Shop.
A full set of veneers for a Bentley takes 13 days to produce.
A menu card signed by Bentley drivers soon after the team’s second
Le Mans win in 1927 was sold at auction in February 2000 for £1,600.
When Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato was dared to take on the famous
Blue Train between Cannes and Calais in his Speed Six in 1930, he
won the bet by not only beating it but by reaching his club in
Victoria, London, four minutes before the express pulled into
Calais.
The Bentley 3-litre was the first car ever to be named for its
cylinder capacity rather than its horsepower rating.
When a hotelier called W.O. Bentley “a timid little man” behind his
back, he invited him incognito for a spin in his new 3-litre. He
said the man was “holding on like grim death” by the time he
revealed his identity.
All cars are tested on a rolling road at Crewe to more than 100mph.
Bentley Motors was founded in 1919 but the manufacturer did not make
a complete car for 27 years – only engines and chassis.
The first Bentley with automatic transmission was the R-Type in
1952.
Some 300 Bentleys turn up every year to the Bentley Drivers Club
Concours d’Elegance. The club has 3,000 members around the world.
Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin set a lap record of 138mph in his 4½-litre
Blower Bentley at Brooklands in 1932.
Every piece of glass in a Bentley is given its final polish with
finely powdered pumice normally used to polish optical lenses.
W.O. Bentley always told his drivers to drive no faster than was
necessary to beat the opposition – underlining the Bentley tradition
of relaxed touring with power to spare.
Hydraulic tappets on cars are given a natural finish of a
16-millionth of an inch.
An eight-cylinder engine was first used in an experimental version
of the Mk V before the last war. It was nicknamed the Scalded Cat
because it was so quick off the mark.
Every single component of a Crewe-built car is filed on computer in
minute detail and can be tracked back through each stage of its
development.
W.O. Bentley was inspired to build his famous 6½-litre after a
chance encounter with a prototype Rolls-Royce Phantom I in France in
1924. W O’s 4½-litre and the Phantom stayed neck and neck for miles
– until the hat of the Rolls-Royce driver blew off.
Crewe’s monsoon test consists of spraying 1,820 litres of water
containing a trace dye at
each completed car. In the darkened drying area, it is then checked
for leaks under ultra-violet light.
It takes at least 15 cows to provide the 400 pieces of hide needed
for one Bentley. The trimmers achieve 60 per cent usage from the
hides – the best in the industry.
Lacquer-spraying robots in the Paint Shop are programmed to simulate
a human sprayer on his best day.
One in five body components is chisel-checked for structural
efficiency.
The Bentley Mk VI had an unusual centralised lubrication system –
the driver could use a foot-pedal to apply oil to all chassis
components on starting and every 100 miles. Owners tended either to
overlook it or overdo it, and the system was later abandoned.
The first member of the Royal Family to drive a Bentley was the Duke
of Kent, who bought a 3-litre in 1924, later owning a 6½-litre,
4½-litre and an 8-litre. Today, Prince Michael of Kent is a member
of the Bentley Drivers Club.
Vintage Bentleys were substantial; as they kept winning at Le Mans,
Ettore Bugatti was quoted as saying: “My friend Mr Bentley builds
the fastest lorries of anyone I know.”
There are 820 wires in the main distribution loom of a modern
Bentley.
A shake rig used at Crewe to identify suspension, body or interior
noises can be set to replicate any road surface from motorway
concrete to back roads.
Twenty-five layers of tulipwood are used to create the substrate for
a Bentley veneer.
Two Bentley Speed Sixes were used on active duty with the Western
Australia Police Force from 1930 until 1947.
Up to 560 components, 3m (9.8ft) of MIG wire, 1.5m (4.9ft) of
brazing and some 200 nuts are used to construct each steel body.
Veneers are cut to provide perfect symmetry either side of a
Bentley’s centreline. A macabre skull-like effect which resulted
from one such exercise is displayed in the Wood Shop – nobody was
likely to want it in their car!
W.O. Bentley made his name by replacing cast-iron pistons with
lightweight aluminium. He got the idea in 1912 from seeing an
ashtray made in that material – and recorded 90mph using the
resulting engine.
Four-axis measuring machines check 2,500 measuring points on car
bodies.
E.R. Foden, of lorry fame, when asked by W.O. what he thought of his
new 6½-litre said it was very nice, but he missed the “bloody thump”
of his old 3-litre.
The Paint Shop has 2.2 miles of track.
Specialist engineers test each engine by machine, but also by ear.
They are trained to detect as many as 70 different possible faults.
One could drive a modern Bentley from the Arctic Circle to the
Equator without having to adjust the air conditioning – the interior
temperature would remain constant.
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