Strip the Bentley 8 Litre back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: SOHC 8 , 220 bhp @3,300rpm. Bentley built from 1930 to 1932, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Its designer of record is W. O. Bentley.
The background
The Bentley 8 Litre was a large inline 6-cylinder luxury car made in various configurations by Bentley Motors Limited at Cricklewood, London. Announced 15 September 1930, it was also the last completely new model by Bentley before the company's financial collapse and forced sale to Rolls-Royce Limited.
A Bentley 4 Litre featuring a 4-litre, inline-6 engine in a shortened chassis was announced on 15 May 1931. Introduced a year into the Great Depression, the 8-litre and its smaller 4-litre sibling were unable to turn the company's finances around. Less than nine months after the 8-litre's introduction, Bentley Motors was placed into receivership.
The engineering
Under the skin sits SOHC 8 it is rated at 220 bhp @3,300rpm. Kerb weight is 2.5 tonnes (5500 lb.) or more, depending on coachwork. The gearbox is a Manual gearbox, 4-speeds and reverse / Single-dry-plate clutch / Hypoid bevel final drive. 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. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Where it sits in Bentley's history is not in doubt: it was built at Cricklewood, London, United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Maserati Type V4. Its Bentley stablemates include the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Bentley 8 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.