Bentley 4½ Litre |
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Wikipedia: Bentley 4½ Litre
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Bentley 4½ Litre page on 26 July 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Bentley 4½ Litre was a British car based on a rolling chassis built by Bentley Motors. Walter Owen Bentley replaced the Bentley 3 Litre with a more powerful car by increasing its engine displacement to 4.4 L (270 cu in).
Bentley buyers used their cars for personal transport and arranged for their new chassis to be fitted with various body styles, mostly saloons or tourers. However, the publicity brought by their competition programme was invaluable for marketing Bentley's cars.
At the time, noted car manufacturers like Bugatti and Lorraine-Dietrich focused on designing cars to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a popular automotive endurance course established only a few years earlier. A victory in this competition quickly elevated any car maker's reputation.
A total of 720 4½ Litre cars were produced between 1927 and 1931, including 55 cars with a supercharged engine popularly known as the Blower Bentley. A 4½ Litre Bentley won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1928. Though the supercharged 4½ Litre Bentley's competitive performance was not outstanding, it set several speed records, most famously in 1932 at Brooklands with a recorded speed of 222.03 km/h (138 mph).
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1988 Gilmore Classic Car Club of America Artist: Ken Eberts Cars: 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom/Bentley 4½ Litre in the reflection Event: Gilmore Classic Car Club Museums Concours Image courtesy 
View 1988 Gilmore Classic Car Club Museums Concours Poster - 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom/Bentley 4½ Litre - 68KB |
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1930 John Julien's 1930 4½ litre Bentley tourer. News and Events: Illinois and Wisconsin Regions Enjoy Fall Tour View photo of 1930 Bentley 4½ Litre - 862KB |
