According to Dr.

Hay’s report, Bentley 3-Litre number 406 was built as a Standard Model chassis, with front-wheel brakes, wide-ratio “B” type gearbox, and 4.23:1 rear axle on a 130-inch-wheelbase frame.

It was originally delivered via Boon & Porter Ltd.

of Barnes, southwest London, to W.

Loudon Douglas, to whom a five-year guarantee was issued on 17 November 1923, and the car registered in Surrey as PD 8577.

The builder of the original coachwork is not known, but it is described in a later advertisement in The Motor as having been a “very handsome polished aluminum four-seater,” with the hood and fenders also in polished aluminum.

Douglas entered this car in the Motor Cycling Club’s London-Exeter Trial in December 1925, receiving a Gold Medal.

The Bentley was transferred in May 1926 to second owner W.

C.

Mitchell, for whom the chassis received regular upgrades over the next two years, then in 1931 to E.

F.

Gunstone, who had it regularly serviced through the late 1930s, as no...