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The Ultimate History of Bentley

Part of the '8 DVD Box Set – Classic Cars' reviewed by John Cooper Running Time - 81 minutes www.greenumbrella.co.uk

This was the first DVD of the box set that I chose to watch, as it was the one that immediately caught my attention. Before the actual documentary starts, as is common on most DVDs, there is a menu that allows you to select individual chapters or play the whole DVD. I must admit that when I first saw this I was worried that the chapters may prove to be individually produced and a little disjointed with tenuous links between them. But I needn’t have worried. First time through I watched the DVD end to end and it flowed seamlessly.

The easiest way to give you a feel for the flow and content of the DVD is probably to list the chapters:

1. W.O. Bentley – An appreciation
2. Bentley and the Tourist Trophy
3. Racing & record breaking
4. The depression bites
5. The Brooklands Bentleys
6. Rolls Royce take over
7. Under new ownership
8. Victory again at Le Mans!

Despite what this list may suggest, it actually starts with the Bentley Continental GT and some stunning performance statistics about it (apparently it’s the fastest 4-seater in the World) before linking this back to it’s racing heritage. From thereon, it’s pretty much a chronological history of Bentley and especially it’s sporting past. It’s impossible to separate the discussion of the road going or race cars as they were often one and the same thing.

A large portion of the film is devoted to interviews with Stanley Mann who to this day continues to set new records in his vintage Bentleys. He has a very interesting point of view that he puts to potential vintage Bentley buyers who approach him and that is that they’re not buying the car, simply renting it for their own lifetime as it’s already outlived it’s first owner and will probably outlive them as well!

The vintage period of the film is probably the most evocative of a bygone era when motor racing was for the upper classes. What’s particularly great about this marque however, and a common message throughout the film is that it’s a car to be driven and that they still are. They make the interesting point that whereas there is a Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club, the Bentley equivalent is the Bentley Drivers Club.

There is therefore also a significant amount of footage of present day Bentley racing including a 24 litre Napier aero-engined Bentley-chassis’ed car getting involved in an expensive looking tangle! Apparently this car was built for the gently banked curves of Brooklands where being able to turn left or right wasn’t so important.

And so the film progresses through the years until we are back into modern times, Bentley’s current production range and their recent return to racing.

This DVD was exactly what I wanted of it. It’s so much more that just a list of facts and figures that you could get by reading a book. The excellent footage throughout adds so much more to this which could probably only be surpassed by attending a vintage race meeting, something I’m now fully intending to do.