The Bentley 3 Litre is a as arranged with coachbuilder by customer from Bentley, built from 1921 to 1929, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. Under the bonnet: 3.0 . Walter Owen Bentley drew it.
The story
The Bentley 3 Litre was a car chassis manufactured by Bentley. The company's first, it was developed from 1919 and made available to customers' coachbuilders from 1921 to 1929. The Bentley was very much larger than the 1368 cc Bugattis that dominated racing at the time, but double the size of engine and strength compensated for the extra weight. The 4000 lb (1800 kg) car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, with drivers John Duff and Frank Clement, and again in 1927, this time in Super Sports form, with drivers S.
C. H. "Sammy" Davis and Dudley Benjafield. Its weight, size, and speed prompted Ettore Bugatti to call it "the fastest lorry in the world", which was regarded as a compliment. Built in 3 main variants, Blue label, Red Label Speed models all carrying a 5-year warranty, and the coveted and rare Green Label 100 mph cars, which only carried a 12-month warranty reflecting the high state of tune.
What is underneath
Power comes from 3.0 . The wheelbase is 108 in / 117.5 in / 130 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the 4½ Litre; assembly was at Cricklewood, United Kingdom. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the British Motor Corporation Austin 12, the Alfa Romeo G1, the Fiat 520 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Bentley catalogue sit the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre Sport.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Bentley 3 Litre has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.
Bentley1919