Olympia Collection by Mulliner

In the summer of 1924, W.O. Bentley attended the European Grand Prix in Lyon. On the journey home, travelling north through France towards Dieppe, a chance encounter would help shape Bentley history. Another car appeared on the road ahead, travelling in the same direction. It was the prototype of the new ‘Phantom I’, the forthcoming model from Bentley’s fiercest rival, Rolls Royce. With virtually no traffic on the long, straight, northward route nationale, the two cars engaged in a duel, driving side by side for mile after mile as they battled for supremacy. Only when the hat was blown off one of the occupants of the Rolls Royce was the impromptu race abandoned. As W.O. pressed on towards London, he knew his plans needed to change.

W.O. was a confident man. He knew in his bones he would have won that race – but he was acutely aware that it would have been far closer than he would have liked. Concerned at how easily the Rolls matched his speed, he went back to the drawing board, to design something bigger and more powerful than anything he had built before.

In the two years that followed, life at Bentley was far from quiet. The company’s tried-and-tested 3.0-litre cars were beginning to establish their dominance in endurance racing – most notably at Le Mans – and the heroic Bentley Boys were fast becoming stars of the motor racing world. Behind the scenes, however, another story was unfolding. W.O. and his engineers were building, testing, and refining a monstrously powerful new engine – and ultimately, an entirely new car in which to reveal it.

In October 1925, the Bentley 6½ Litre was first revealed at the Olympia Motor Show in London, in a bare chassis. Promoting and selling cars in this way was not uncommon back then, as many customers would choose their chassis and engine first, then commission a coachbuilder such as H.J. Mulliner to create a body and cabin to meet their requirements. Crucially, this was the world’s first look at Bentley’s new 6½ Litre engine. It was a bold statement of intent.

In early 1926, following months of further testing, the Bentley 6½ Litre was finally made available to the public as a rolling chassis, as it had been shown at Olympia the previous year. Not only did its 6,597cc capacity make it phenomenally powerful, but it was also refined and reliable, making it perfect for grand touring and endurance racing.

In October 1926, the Bentley 6½ Litre was presented as a complete car at the Olympia Motor Show, with coachbuilding by Vanden Plas. Now fitted with a bespoke interior and touring bodywork, the car combined bespoke craftmanship and design with an immensely powerful Bentley powerplant – much as Mulliner does today.

In the years that followed, the engine was proven on the racetrack as well as the road, with the banked tracks of the Brooklands racing circuit providing the setting for many of its most notable performances. In time, the engine would be used in combination with an even more performance-focused chassis, that of the legendary Bentley Speed Six. But that is another story entirely…