Blue Train Bentley
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Blue Train Races. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2013. |
The term Blue Train Bentley refers to two Bentley automobiles, based on the high-performance 6½ litre Bentley Speed Six model, which became known for their owner Woolf Barnato's involvement in the Blue Train Races of 1930.
Overview
The Bentley Speed Six was introduced in 1928 as a more sporting version of the Bentley 6½ Litre. It would become the most-successful racing Bentley, claiming victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1929 and 1930 with Bentley Boys drivers Woolf Barnato, Tim Birkin, and Glen Kidston.
However, the Speed Six was also fitted as a conventional road car, and many were indeed used apart from racing for everyday transportation. Bentley Motors Chairman Woolf Barnato used them with various bespoke bodyworks from British coachbuilders as his personal automobiles. Two saloon-bodied Speed Six even served as patrol cars for the Criminal Investigation Department of the Western Australia Police.
Blue Train Race
In January 1930, the Rover Company's Rover Light Six gained a worldwide reputation when it was the first successful participant in the Blue Train Races, a series of record-breaking attempts between automobiles and trains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the Le Train Bleu, a train that ran between Calais and the French Riviera.[1][2][3][4][5]
One evening in March 1930, at a dinner at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, talk around the table had swung round to the topic of motor cars; in particular to the advertisement by Rover claiming that its Rover Light Six had gone faster than the famous "Le train bleu" express. Woolf Barnato contended that just to go faster than the Blue Train was of no special merit. He raised the stakes by arguing that at the wheel of his own Bentley Speed Six, he could be at his club in London before the train reached Calais and bet 100 Pound Sterling on that challenge! The next day, the 13 March 1930, as the Blue Train steamed out of Cannes station at 17:45h, Barnato, with one of his friends who had gallantly offered to act as a relief driver, took to the mighty Bentley and set off at the double. From Lyons onwards they had to battle against heavy rain. At 4:20h, in Auxerre, they lost time searching for a refueling rendezvous. Through central France they hit fog, then shortly after Paris they had a burst tyre, requiring the use of their one and only spare. And yet, racing non-stop through the night along the bumpy, 1930s Routes Nationales, they reached the coast at 10:30h, sailed over to England on the cross-Channel packet, and were neatly parked outside The Conservative Club in St. James's Street, London, by 15:20h - four minutes before the Blue Train reached Calais. He won the bet, whereupon the French authorities promptly fined him a sum far greater than his winnings - for racing on public roads.
The Blue Train Bentley controversy
Barnato drove a H. J. Mulliner-bodied Bentley Speed Six formal saloon during the race, which became known as the Blue Train Bentley. Two months later, on 21 May 1930, he took delivery of a new Bentley Speed Six streamlined fastback "Sportsman Coupe" by Gurney Nutting. Barnato named it the "Blue Train Special" in memory of his race, and it too became commonly referred to as the Blue Train Bentley. The H. J. Mulliner-bodywork was stripped off the original car's chassis to make place for a bespoke replacement, as was common practice for automobiles at that time.
With growing historical distance to the event, the Gurney Nutting-bodied car was regularly mistaken for or errouneously referred to as being the car that had raced the Blue Train. This was reiterated in articles and various popular motoring paintings depicting that car racing "le train bleu". Even in 2005 for the 75th anniversary of the race, Bentley's promotional material continued this depiction as the rakish coupe and the related daredevil Bentley Boys mythology symbolised the brand image Bentley was asked to project as a marque of the Volkswagen Group much better than the rather staid formal saloon bodywork by H. J. Mulliner.[6][7]
Thanks to research efforts and a massive automotive restoration by Bruce and Jolene McCaw of Medina, Washington – who became owner of the Gurney Nutting-built "Blue Train Special" – this long-time mistake became finally more widely publicised. The original H. J. Mulliner Blue Train Bentley bodywork was also reconstructed, so that both cars are now in fully restored existence. They are currently owned by Bruce and Jolene McCaw.
References
- ^ Graham Robson (1981). The Rover company (2 ed.). Patrick Stephens. ISBN 0-85059-543-6.
- ^ Chris Brady & Andrew Lorenz (2005). End of the Road: The Real Story of the Downfall of Rover. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-273-70653-5.
- ^ Lewis, Robert (2003-07-11). "Five Million Rovers (And More)". Car Keys. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ "Rover Report on their first 70 years". British Motor Heritage Centre. 1974-07-26. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ Pickard, J. (2004-11-16). "Reserved and Refined British Saloon Cars: Official History of Rover and Timeline Milestones". Rover 1904-2004. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ Melissen, Wouter (2004-01-12). "Bentley Speed Six 'Blue Train Special'". UltimateCarPage. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ Burgess-Wise, David (2006-01-01). "The Slippery Shape of Power". Auto Aficionado. Retrieved 2008-11-04. [dead link]