Bentley does not build many cars like the Bentley 3.5 Litre: a Chassis provided, customer to select own coachbuilder and body style with 3½ , built from 1933 to 1939 when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together.
How it came about
The Bentley 3½ Litre (later enlarged to 4¼ Litre) was a luxury car produced by Bentley from 1933 to 1939. It was presented to the public in September 1933, shortly after the death of Henry Royce, and was the first new Bentley model following Rolls-Royce's acquisition of the Bentley brand in 1931. Bentley sold only the drivable bare rolling chassis with engine and gearbox, scuttle and radiator, ready for coachbuilders to construct on it a body to the buyer's requirements. Many distributors ordered their preferred bodies as showroom stock to enable them to stock finished cars ready for immediate sale.
Bentleys of this era are known as Derby Bentleys because they were built in the Rolls-Royce factory located in Derby, England. Those of Bentley's previous independent era are Cricklewood Bentleys. Chassis series A to F were 3½ Litre cars; G to L (excluding I) were 4¼ Litres, and the M series was the 4¼ Litre Overdrive chassis. Each series consisted of 100 chassis numbers, either odd or even. The numbers 13 and 113 in each series were not used, to avoid upsetting superstitious customers.
The hardware
Under the skin sits 3½ other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 126 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Bentley's history is not in doubt: the Cricklewood Bentleys came before it; the Bentley Mark V followed it; it was built at Derby, England (chassis only), United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Vauxhall Light Six. Its Bentley stablemates include the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Bentley 3.5 Litre — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.