Bentley Mark VI
Veloce Classic Reprint 2007. Cover photo: Peter Burn
‘THE MOSTEST OF THE BESTEST’
I can’t remember when I first became enthralled by Bentleys.
As soon as I could hold a coherent conversation my Bentley-adoring father used to ask me ‘what I wanted to talk about’. Invariably I replied: ‘Bentleys’.
Thus I was regaled with legends such as ‘Old Number Seven’, the Three Litre, gravely wounded in the White House crash at Le Mans in 1927, but ultimately the race winner. Later I was enormously impressed that our Ford Anglia had a square rear registration plate, just like most R Type Bentleys. At 10,
I was troubled that a Mark VI should feature in the hauntingly harrowing Francis Durbridge TV thriller, The Scarf.
I hope my approach to Bentleys – and Rolls-Royces – matured, because I owned Bentleys and drove loads of examples of both makes.
I became convinced, and still am, that, as far as it is possible at all, Rolls-Royce only ever produced two models that were ‘the best car in the world’. One was the 40/50 Silver Ghost* produced in Britain from 1907-1925 and America from 1921-1926. The other was the post-WWll Mark Vl Bentley.
The most succinct appraisal of the Mark Vl I have ever read appears in the book Motoring My Way by the late Stanley Sedgwick, president (and subsequently patron) of the Bentley Drivers’ Club.
We all have our own ideas as to which is the fastest car available; which has the best cornering and road-holding; which gives the best ride; which is the most economical; most comfortable; best value for money; easiest to drive; coziest; best in acceleration; best braked; etc; but no one car can possess the ultimate in all these features.
‘The man (sic) who seeks the best of everything without demanding the ultimate in anything will find the mixture served up at Crewe in the shape of a 4.5 litre Standard Steel Saloon (Bentley Mark Vl).
Or, as Sedgwick summed up: ‘the mostest of the bestest’!
When I wrote this book, first published in 1997, I sought to establish and expand on all Stanley Sedgwick had said. I also wanted to put the immediate post-WWll Bentleys and Rolls-Royces in their social context; to underpin the Rolls-Royce company’s commercial courage; in launching cars of a type for which it was very uncertain there would ever be a market again. Finally, I wanted to share the charm, satisfaction and pride in superb workmanship that anyone, whether by-stander or owner, will find embodied in all these models.
My last Bentley from the ‘early’ post-War period was a 1955 S1 Standard Steel Saloon
(B 501 CM). Nowadays, ownership is hopelessly impractical for the average person, and not even environmentally acceptable any more. Yet I maintain my S1 was the finest car of any make, nationality or age that I have ever known.
* ’Silver Ghost’ as a type is problematical for the pedantic. ‘The’ Silver Ghost was one specific car of Rolls-Royce’s 40/50 horsepower model. However, the ‘Silver Ghost’ nomenclature became the norm, certainly outside, and probably inside, the Works.
I can’t remember when I first became enthralled by Bentleys.
As soon as I could hold a coherent conversation my Bentley-adoring father used to ask me ‘what I wanted to talk about’. Invariably I replied: ‘Bentleys’.
Thus I was regaled with legends such as ‘Old Number Seven’, the Three Litre, gravely wounded in the White House crash at Le Mans in 1927, but ultimately the race winner. Later I was enormously impressed that our Ford Anglia had a square rear registration plate, just like most R Type Bentleys. At 10,
I was troubled that a Mark VI should feature in the hauntingly harrowing Francis Durbridge TV thriller, The Scarf.
I hope my approach to Bentleys – and Rolls-Royces – matured, because I owned Bentleys and drove loads of examples of both makes.
I became convinced, and still am, that, as far as it is possible at all, Rolls-Royce only ever produced two models that were ‘the best car in the world’. One was the 40/50 Silver Ghost* produced in Britain from 1907-1925 and America from 1921-1926. The other was the post-WWll Mark Vl Bentley.
The most succinct appraisal of the Mark Vl I have ever read appears in the book Motoring My Way by the late Stanley Sedgwick, president (and subsequently patron) of the Bentley Drivers’ Club.
We all have our own ideas as to which is the fastest car available; which has the best cornering and road-holding; which gives the best ride; which is the most economical; most comfortable; best value for money; easiest to drive; coziest; best in acceleration; best braked; etc; but no one car can possess the ultimate in all these features.
‘The man (sic) who seeks the best of everything without demanding the ultimate in anything will find the mixture served up at Crewe in the shape of a 4.5 litre Standard Steel Saloon (Bentley Mark Vl).
Or, as Sedgwick summed up: ‘the mostest of the bestest’!
When I wrote this book, first published in 1997, I sought to establish and expand on all Stanley Sedgwick had said. I also wanted to put the immediate post-WWll Bentleys and Rolls-Royces in their social context; to underpin the Rolls-Royce company’s commercial courage; in launching cars of a type for which it was very uncertain there would ever be a market again. Finally, I wanted to share the charm, satisfaction and pride in superb workmanship that anyone, whether by-stander or owner, will find embodied in all these models.
My last Bentley from the ‘early’ post-War period was a 1955 S1 Standard Steel Saloon
(B 501 CM). Nowadays, ownership is hopelessly impractical for the average person, and not even environmentally acceptable any more. Yet I maintain my S1 was the finest car of any make, nationality or age that I have ever known.
* ’Silver Ghost’ as a type is problematical for the pedantic. ‘The’ Silver Ghost was one specific car of Rolls-Royce’s 40/50 horsepower model. However, the ‘Silver Ghost’ nomenclature became the norm, certainly outside, and probably inside, the Works.