Bentley not races at Le Mans, however through the automaker’s early life it dominated the occasion, scoring 5 wins between 1924 and 1930. Two of these wins, in 1929 and 1930, have been achieved by the legendary Velocity Six because of efforts of Bentley Boys “Tim” Birkin, Glen Kidston, and Woolf Barnato. Barnato was additionally chairman of Bentley on the time.
Bentley final 12 months mentioned it deliberate to construct 12 fashionable examples of the Velocity Six as a part of a Continuation Collection program that kicked off late final decade with fashionable examples of the 1929 Bentley Blower. In this system, Bentley builds further variations of early automobiles, with elements that in lots of circumstances are created utilizing the identical strategies as again within the day.
The primary of the trendy Velocity Six automobiles has now been accomplished, a prototype model that will probably be retained by Bentley. It was offered for the primary time on Thursday on the 2023 Goodwood Competition of Velocity. As a prototype, it will likely be used for real-world sturdiness testing, together with on the racetracks.
Manufacturing of the primary buyer automobile will start in October. Every automobile will take round 10 months to finish and all 12 are scheduled to be accomplished by the tip of 2025. The staff at Bentley’s Mulliner personalization division, the identical staff chargeable for the earlier Blower Continuation Collection, is chargeable for the mission.
Constructing the automobiles isn’t a straightforward course of, particularly as Bentley needed to construct Velocity Sixes matching the specification of the Le Mans winners. The staff relied on authentic drawings, mechanics’ notes, and 3D scanning of the unique automobiles.
Within the case of the engine alone, in extra of 600 particular person elements have been required. Preliminary dyno testing of the trendy 6.5-liter inline-6 has proven the engine delivers 205 hp at its peak, which is inside 5 hp of what’s documented for the unique race-tuned engine.
The pursuit of authenticity extends to the colours of the paint and inside trim, which the staff matched to samples on the archives of the U.Ok.’s Nationwide Motor Museum.
In case you’re questioning, all 12 construct slots for the trendy Velocity Six are gone, regardless of a price ticket of 1.5 million euros (roughly $1.67 million).
HIGH-RES GALLERY: 1930 Bentley Velocity Six Continuation Collection prototype
This text was initially printed by Motor Authority, an editorial associate of ClassicCars.com
