Bentley The Cars from Crewe

When the first new post war Bentleys emerged from Rolls Royce’s former aero engine factory at Crewe in 1946, it was the beginning of a new era for one of Britain’s most famous sporting marques. Available in either a standard steel body or a variety of special coachwork produced by the cream of British coachbuilders in a final spectacular flowering of their art, the Mark VI Bentley was an elegant sporting carriage. The R Type of 1952, with its larger engine introduced in 1921 and more spacious boot, maintained the Bentley superiority in the luxury high performance market, and the advert of the streamlined 120 mph R Type Continental in the same year was a major landmark in the company’s history. Thereafter, the fortunes of the Crewe built cars declined slightly, as the S Series were really only badge engineered Rolls Royces, excellent vehicles though they were, and the performance margin initially enjoyed by their Continental derivatives was steadily eroded by improvements to the standard bodied versions. Bentley sales decreased steadily through the 1960s and 1970s; even the appearance of the T series in 1965 failed to revive the individual fame of the marque. A turning point came however in 1980, when the Mulsanne appeared. Shortly afterward the turbocharged version was launched, which helped to bring the marque back to the limelight. Within this book Rodney Steel covers, model by model, the range of Bentleys produced by Crewe up to the Mulsanne Turbo and Project 90, their styling exercise exhibited at the 1985 Geneva Motor Show. With a fine selection of coachwork photographs and a table of chassis numbers covering the Mark VI, R Type and S series cars, the book offers a good reference work.