1928 Bentley 3 litre

This car took part in the Pre-War Team Challenge Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017.

It's the 1928 Bentley 3 litre of Duncan Wiltshire and is pictured here at Druids corner during the morning qualifying session. The car is chassis ML1524.

Here's the car at Hislops chicane during the race in the afternoon followed by Richard Reay-Smith in his 1936 Lagonda LG45 Team Car.

1924 Bentley 3 litre

This car took part in the Lancashire Automobile Club's annual Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1990 and is pictured in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Run.

It's the 1924 Bentley 3 litre of Clive Miller of Stalybridge and is chassis 592. The programme of the event had this note about the car:

Bentley 3 litre

Reg: FR 5792  4 cylinder  2996cc

(Clive Miller, Stalybridge)

A very original car, still with many of its original fitments - outside exhaust, auxiliary oil tank and Edwardian headlamps, Also original engine, gearbox, rear axle and Harrison 2-seater body. The car was photographed and featured in Autocar in 1925.

1924 Bentley 3 litre

This is one of the cars that took part in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in May 1992 and is pictured moving up to the start line in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.

This is the only bit of information about the car in the programme of the event:

'21   1924 Bentley 3 litre Tourer

        Mr K. Bothamley, Rochdale, Lancashire'

According to the Vintage Bentleys website the car is chassis no. 474, has Freestone & Webb bodywork and was delivered new to a Capt. R F Vane in March 1924.

1926 Bentley 3 litre

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's a 1926 Bentley 3 litre which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,996cc engine 1622 of which were produced between 1921 and 1929. Behind the wheel of the car is SCH 'Sammy' Davis who was one of the 'Bentley Boys' of the late 1920s and early 1930s when the Le Mans 24 Hour race was won for four consecutive years from 1927 to 1930. Sammy Davis drove the winning car in 1927 with Dr Dudley Benjafield. He was also President of the Vintage Sports Car Club in 1936 and 1937. I feel that I should know the gentleman in the passenger seat, but the name escapes me.

1923 Bentley 3 litre

This car was in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's a 1923 Bentley 3 litre, a TT Replica car chassis no. 331, originally built with a 2-seater body by Rippon Brothers that was later replaced by this fabric-covered 4-seater body by Vanden Plas. It has a 4-cylinder inline 2,996cc engine, and was at one time owned by Hugh McCaig, the man who revived Scottish racing team Ecurie Ecosse in the 1980s after the original team had ceased operating in 1981.

Bentleys

Any meeting organised by the Vintage Sports Car Club is always going to attract a good number of Bentleys, and the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 was no exception.

The car nearest the camera is the 1929 Bentley 4½ litre Le Mans driven in Sunday's hour-long Motor Racing Legends Pre-war Sports Cars race by Stanley Mann and Michael Rudnig. The red car next to that is possibly the 1927 supercharged Bentley 3 litre driven by Joe and Rachel Singer in the same race. The silver car looks like the 1927 Bentley 3/8 litre of Adam Singer that he shared with Stanley Mann in Saturday's 2 hour-long VSCC White House Memorial Pre-war Sports Car Team Relay Race. On 9 August 2017 I showed a photograph of this car at Donington Park in 2006. The next car appears to have three racing numbers and seems to be the 1928 Bentley 3/4½ litre Le Mans driven in the Relay Race by Joseph Singer as number 171 and Stuart Fearnside as number 172. It may also be the car shared by Adam Singer and Stuart Fearnside in Sunday's hour-long race - that was number 14, but is shown in the programme of the event as a 1927 car, not 1928. The racing number on the last car appears to be a 21, and if so it's the 1929 supercharged Bentley 4½ litre of Martin Overington that he drove in the Sunday hour-long race.

Bentley 3 litre

I photographed this car in one of the spectator car parks at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2008.

It's a 1925 Bentley 3 litre, and you can read some facts about this car on the website of the Vintage Bentley Owners Club.

Bentley 3 litre

On 5 April 2015 I showed a photograph of a Bentley 3 litre which had been rebuilt as a replica of one of the Bentleys that took part in the 1922 TT race in the Isle of Man and I said that it wasn't easy to recognise as a Bentley because it lacked the usual Bentley radiator casing. Here's a photograph I took at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004 which shows what such cars usually look like.

It's a 1925 Bentley 3 litre and was driven in the Pre-War Sports Car Team Relay Race at this meeting by the owner Philip Strickland, and www.vintagebentleys.org has some information about the history of the car.

Bentley 3 litre

I photographed this car in the paddock at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 where it took part in the  1 hour long Motor Racing Legends Pre-war Sports Car race.

Because it's not got the usual hallmark radiator casing it's not instantly recognisable, but it's a 1922 Bentley 3 litre. It's described in the programme of the event as a Bentley TT 3 litre, the 1922 TT in the Isle of Man being the first serious race in which Bentley took part, entering a team of 3 cars. It seems that this car wasn't one of the cars which took part in that race, but a replica of those cars. It was driven in the Donington Park race by Richard and Andrew Frankel.