Bentley is committed to reviving the legendary Speed Six series after 93 years, and the first model of 12 units destined for customers, which the British brand’s customization division, Mulliner, will produce, is now starting to take shape.
The Crewe house has already announced that its creation combines the skills of British engineering and restoration experts with those of Mulliner’s team of specialized technicians.
The construction of the twelve units of the Speed Six series uses materials and techniques from the era to ensure total fidelity to W.O. Bentley’s original design.
The Bentley Speed Six Continuation Series follows the successful completion of twelve Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged ‘Blower’ Continuation units. All twelve Speed Six Continuation Series units have been pre-sold, and customers will be able to specify their vehicles from a choice of period finishes and materials. Each unit will take ten months to build.
The first prototype of the Continuation Series – known as ‘Car Zero’ – has had a busy schedule in the last six months, completing a series of engineering development work. After 40 hours of engine testing, followed by 10,000 km of durability tests on various types of roads and surfaces, the car recently completed high-speed tests, reaching 180 km/h, exactly the maximum speed of the original models. To create the chassis of the Speed Six, Portobello Engineering in Matlock faithfully followed the original designs. The bodywork is handcrafted by the experts at Lomax Coachbuilders.Once the structure is attached to the Speed Six chassis in the Mulliner workshops, the team will cover it with about 25 meters of Rexine, a highly specialized fabric correct for the era, to create the open bodywork of the Speed Six, in the Weymann style.
Vintage Headlamp Restoration International Ltd is responsible for creating vintage design headlights from original specifications, while Vintage Car Radiator contributes the core of the Speed Six radiator, the radiator shell in solid polished nickel silver, and the fuel tank cover and reservoir are handcrafted in steel and copper.
Remember that the Speed Six Continuation Series is based on two original Speed Six models: GU409, and “Old Number 3”, a factory Speed Six driven at the 1930 Le Mans 24 Hours by Sammy Davis and Clive Dunfee. The latter was generously loaned by its owner and provided the Mulliner team with invaluable data on dimensions, materials, and components to apply.
