Bentley no longer competes at Le Mans, but it dominated the event in the carmaker’s formative years, taking five victories between 1924 and 1930. Two of these, in 1929 and 1930, were achieved by the legendary Speed Six thanks to the efforts of Bentley Boys ‘Tim’ Birkin. , Glen Kidston and Woolf Barnato. Barnato was also the chairman of Bentley at the time.
Bentley said last year that it planned to build 12 Modern Examples of the Speed Six as part of the Continue Series program, which started at the end of the last decade with modern examples of the 1929 Bentley blower. As part of the program, Bentley builds further versions of the early cars, with parts that are often made using the same techniques as in the past.
The first of the modern Speed Six cars has now been completed, a prototype version that Bentley will keep. It was presented for the first time on Thursday 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed. As a prototype, it will be used for real endurance tests, including on racetracks.
Production of the first customer car will begin in October. Each car takes about 10 months to build, and all 12 are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. The team from Bentley Mulliner’s personalization department, the same team is responsible for the project.
Building the cars is not an easy process, especially since Bentley wanted to build Speed Sixes to the specifications of the Le Mans winners. The team relied on original drawings, mechanics’ notes and 3D scans of the original cars.
More than 600 individual parts were required for the engine alone. The first dyno tests of the modern 6.5-liter inline-6 showed that the engine had a peak output of 205 hp, which is within 5 hp of the value documented for the original race-tuned engine.
The quest for authenticity extends to the paint and interior colors, which the team matched to samples from the archives of the UK’s National Motor Museum.
In case you’re wondering, all 12 build slots for the modern Speed Six are gone, despite the €1.5 million (about $1.67 million) price tag.
HIGH RESOLUTION GALLERY: 1930 Bentley Speed Six Continuation Series Prototype
This article was originally published by Motor Authorityeditorial partner ClassicCars.com
