Bentley Classic Cars for Sale

The British car company Bentley was founded by Walter Owen Bentley in 1919. Today, Bentley is known as one of the most exclusive brands in the world alongside the sister company Rolls Royce.

Bentley in racing

The brand Bentley became famous through racing. Many racers who came from rich families and thus could afford Bentleys ranked highly ​​in this racing car. In the first 24-hour race at Le Mans, Bentley drivers achieved fourth place; between 1927 and 1930 Bentley was the winner in its series. One of the major donors was Woolf Barnato, who eventually became CEO. However, as of 1930 the market for racing cars collapsed. The demand was now rather for luxurious cars.

The acquisition of Bentley

With the 8 litre and 4 litre models, Bentley wanted to pivot to the upper class of luxury cars. In the first half of 1931, already 62 cars had been sold, which was a lot for that time and the price was higher than that of a comparable model of Rolls-Royce. But, in the same year, Bentley went bankrupt. Only 49 exemplars of the Bentley 8 litre were built and only 7 of the Bentley 4 litre. As a direct result, Bentley had to be sold. The company Napier & Son wanted to acquire Bentley, but surprisingly there was a higher offer from British Central Equitable Trust Limited, which acted on behalf of Rolls-Royce. After Rolls-Royce took over Bentley, the company tried to maintain its good reputation as an exclusive sports car manufacturer, which it managed to do successfully. However, the make Bentley was sold to Volkswagen in 1998. In 2003, Volkswagen's presented its first independent development of a Bentley, the Continental GT, and subsequent models were built exclusively based upon Volkswagen. In 2001, for the first time in decades, Bentley took part in the 24-hour race at Le Mans. In 2003, with the Speed ​​8, the team of Bentley was able to celebrate a success and to build on its earlier victories.

Bentley's trademark

The Bentley logo shows a winged B. It was designed by Walter Owen Bentley's friend Freddie Gordon Crosby, and has hardly changed ever since. Only the background colour changed between blue, red, green and black, depending on the model. However, the radiator grill is probably the unique symbol of Bentley, which is still used after the change from Rolls-Royce to Volkswagen.