Bentley Racing Tourer

Registration number: BLT 988
Chassis registered with Bentley owners club in 1934
VIN number: U5BH
Engine number: NA
Chassis Number: B80CR
(Original Engine Number: U5BH)
MOT expires: NA
New Version V5C present listing no former keepers
Current mileage shown

4900cc

Green

the 3½ litre Bentley with chassis number B80 CR was delivered in January 1935 with engine no U5BH, carrying a 4-door saloon body constructed by Arthur Mulliner of Northampton and registration number BLT 988.

Arthur Mulliner constructed 41 bodies for Derby Bentleys between 1934 and 1939, 39 saloons and 2 fixed head coupes. Very few of their original bodies have survived, maybe 10 or fewer. In 1939 they were bought by Henlys and ceased coachbuilding after 179 years, their origins being traced back to 1760.

B80 CR was ordered by H M Bentley & Partners of Hanover Court, London W1 and was sold to D E Pelly Esq of Yew Tree Cottage, Higham, Colchester, Essex. B80 CR replaced Mr Pelly’s earlier Park Ward special drophead coupe B90 AH, also supplied through H M Bentley & Partners in May 1934. The chassis card (copy attached) shows that the car was returned to H M Bentley & Partners two years later, traded in for B1 HM, a 4 ¼ litre Bentley with standardised All Steel saloon coachwork by Park Ward. B80 CR was then sold later in 1937 to a J. Heber Percy, a diplomat at the British Embassy in Alexandria Egypt who kept it until 1945. This may well have been Josceline Reginald Heber-Percy, born 1880 in the Isle of Wight, brought up at Hodnet Hall in Shopshire, who married a cousin in Warwick in 1904, had two daughters and a son before serving in WWI first with the Northumberland Fusiliers, and then with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and rising to the rank of Captain. He later became Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire. He died in 1964.

This beautifully built Bentley based on a 1930’s Derby chassis took its inspiration for the 1920’s TT model. 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)
The current owner has spent years creating an impressive and capable, sporting special which bares all the correct features and proportions of a vintage machine.
Importantly this car has a prewar identity and coupled up with a 1950s 4.9 litre engine it performs as well if not better than a 1920's four and a quarter litre.
Originally registered BLT 988 in 1935 on an Arthur Mulliner four door saloon, it was found in the mid 1990s as a derelict barn find. All that remained was the original chassis, bulkhead, axles and bonnet.. This was the perfect base for a sporting 1920s special and the new owner lovingly and diligently created the perfect 1920's style replica.
The car is finished extremely well sporting a period style, fabric body and accurate wings. The interior is trimmed beautifully in green leather and the dashboard sports the correct style period dials .On the road it sounds glorious and has huge amounts of power capable of keeping up with modern traffic.

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