THE FINER THINGS - A MAHARAJA’S SPEED SIX India in the time of the British Raj was a land of unimaginable wealth and splendor, exemplified by the luxurious sporting lives of its numerous territorial leaders.

Typical among them was Sawai Man Singh II, Maharaja of Jaipur, who ascended to that position at the age of 10 in 1922.

By 1930, at 18, he was a handsome, strongly built young man of imposing bearing and impressive physical strength, the kind of wealthy, worldly young sportsman for whom W.O.

Bentley’s automobiles existed.

The car that the Maharaja would eventually acquire, chassis no.

LR2778, was a Bentley 6½-Litre ‘Speed Six.’ Chassis LR2778 had been produced for Bentley Motors stock, with an aptly named sportsman’s saloon body produced by H.J.

Mulliner to the latest evolution of the French Weymann patent method, with a flexible inner framework skinned in aluminum and a synthetic leather roof covering set off by a polished aluminum beltline.

Its engine was a beast of a six, ...