This genuine Red Label Speed Model Bentley 3-Litre is in wonderful original condition, is matching numbers and has its original VdP body. It also has a fascinating history.

A 1926 Olympia Motor Show Car, it appeared on the Vanden Plas Stand* and was spotted by the editor of Motor Sport T G Moore. He subsequently bought the car and was the first recorded owner, and he went on to write up his exploits with his new Bentley in his column in Motor Sport. Indeed the earliest known photograph of the car is of it competing in the Inter Varsity Hill climb in 1927 at Ewelme Down, and this too appeared In Motor Sport.

Further early photographs survive of the car, including a number taken at the Bentley Works when the car returned in the 1930s. In one such photograph the car leads a procession from the building and the driver is believed to have been WO Bentley, himself. Another photograph from this same series is reproduced in Michael Hay’s definitive history Bentley: The Vintage Years. His book records that the car was returned to the factory for a new gearbox and more significantly a replacement chassis in 1928, which means the car benefits from one of the heavier gauge chassis of the last years of production.

Beautifully patinated and in excellent mechanical condition, with recently rebuilt magnetos, and a substantial history file, this one is for the connoisseur collector.

*Vanden Plas Coachbuilder records

£POA