5 Things You Didn't Know About Bentley
Bentley has been around forever, of course, and today is synonymous with extreme, uncompromising luxury — but did you know their history is chock-full of really fast cars, playboys, and… James Bond? We checked with Bentley, then dove way deep into their archives to find 5 things you probably didn’t know.
1. Their racing team, known as “The Bentley Boys,” were legendary partiers. The 1929 Le Mans victory celebration party consisted of dinner, dancing, and “fair drinking” until six in the morning, at which point the three prettiest girls were awarded the “prize” of taking a “ride down the driveway” in the “Bentley” with the driver of their choice." Crash helmets” were mandatory.
2. Bentley didn’t want to race at Le Mans in the first place. In 1923, a couple of Bentley’s customers called (or sent a carrier pigeon/telegraph/smoke signal), and asked if the company would support them during some 24-hour race that the French were holding at a middle-of-nowhere place called Le Mans. Bentley (that’s him in the middle) eventually agreed, and John Duff and Frank Clement finished fourth place in the first ever 24 Hours of Le Mans. The following year, those same guys won.
3. The famous “Winged B” hood ornament was designed with forgers in mind. As a counter to the red-hot faux hood ornament market, there’s actually a different number of feathers on each side, in the hopes that forgers wouldn’t notice.
4. W.O. Bentley would have loved American muscle cars. He coined the slogan “There’s no replacement for displacement” for the Bentley 4.5 Liter engine, which was much larger and more powerful than the 3 Liter. It was a criticism against supercharging, and it became the mantra of American muscle car enthusiasts for decades.
5. Ironically, supercharged Bentleys dominated Le Mans for years. Bentleys with huge superchargers hanging off the front of the car owned Le Mans in the late 1920s and early 30s. The superchargers weren’t allowed to be installed on top of the engine because Bentley thought that “to supercharge a Bentley engine was to pervert its design and corrupt its performance.”