“W.O.” Bentley proudly debuted the new 3-litre car bearing his name on Stand 126 at the 1919 Olympia Motor Exhibition, the prototype engine having fired up for the first time just a few weeks earlier.

A.F.C.

Hillstead was to write of the occasion:- “The exhaust note from that engine was strident and, as the room was narrow with both floor and ceiling ricketty and resonant, the appalling din is better imagined than described”.

From the humblest of beginnings in a mews garage off Baker Street, London, in 1919 the name of Bentley rapidly achieved fame as an exciting fast touring car, well able to compete with the best of European and American sports cars in the tough world of motor sport in the 1920s.

Chassis no.50 was a particularly early production model supplied in May 1922 to its first owner, F Simeons, who specified Allweather coachwork by Park Ward.

Its full history is not recorded and the car has something of the ‘woodman’s axe’ about it with several modifications and changes ...