The story of the axe – and that of the Bentley

There is the old saying 'If you have the chassis you have the car'. If you have a numbers matching car (engine, chassis, rear axle, etc.) then you have something much more original and should be worth more.

Its always a pickle modifying vintage cars isn't it? There will always be a camp of people that say 'oh it should've been done this way or that'. No one can please everyone. Vintage car ownership is at its core a method of self expression the previous owner chose to express themselves and their car in this way. Stanley Sedgwick in his leaflet ' Where have the blowers gone?' addresses this. On pages 4 and 5 he outlines how even in the mid 70's these cars were frankly old and quite often racing cars, things broke, and things wear out in a machine especially machines that are 90 years old. Sedgwick goes on to say "I am led to the conclusion that we must judge based by what we see. If the supercharged 4 1/2-Litre Bentleys which come before us bear a distinct resemblance to the original specification and show an honest en-devour to produce an authentic reconstruction, then we must be glad that yet another of these great cars has been preserved for posterity." I think at the basest minimum the prior owner should be commended for retaining the original engine, blower and replacement VDP body. Such things would not have happened 50 years ago.

Ultimately in this age of reconstructions and replicas and the ability to reproduce cars from computer scans, I'd venture to say any car at its core bearing some fettling and craftsmanship by those skilled artisans from near 100 years ago is inherently at its core the genuine article. These cars would also no longer exist without the generations of specialists and enthusiasts who have put forth the herculean effort to keep these important pieces of automotive history going. So whilst the ax and handle may be different than originally manufactured id still rather be able to have at my disposal some ax than no ax at all.

The key legal decision is: Hubbard vs Middlebridge Scimitar Ltd (No. 90/MJ/2474). A transcript of the High Court decision can be found on the web by searching for 'The Case of Old Bentley Number One'. The decision was dated 27/7/90 (Otton, J.) It deals with the rebuilding of Old Number One after its disastrous crash at Brooklands and its subsequent continuous registration history under the same number plate. A second case is that reported in the Daily Mail of 8/3/2012 involving another 6.5 litre Standard chassis. Mercedes Brewer lost her case when she sued Stanley Mann Racing for misrepresenting the car she bought as a 'Speed Six' type. As I understand it, the only part of the original car was a small part of the chassis for a Standard Six. I am guessing here, but it would almost certainly be a cross-member carrying the Bentley company stamp. This is all that is legally required by DVLA for registration purposes. The list of parts you describe for MS3938 is more than enough to satisfy a Court of the provenance of the car, provided the chassis is legal. In fact, nothing else matters. Of course, one needs to be careful how one describes the car, but in the case of MS3938, it appears to be undisputed that it has the original chassis.

Let's say you dismantle a complete car. If you remove the chassis you are left with a pile of parts once fitted to a car. If you reunite the chassis with the pile of parts you have the complete motor car again. Thus, a pile of parts looking for a chassis is not a motor car. It is a pile of parts. So the chassis is the essence of a motor car not the makers' plate, back axle or ash tray. The rest is a matter of provenance, personal taste and wallet displacement.

I'm sure Bentley drivers do not need reminding of "Triggers Broom"!

Soap box time! The ramblings of some one who was told his coupe was too original and a closed car to boot to easily sell and he ought to scrap the body and turn it into a Le Mans Rep by one person in the morning, and then on the same day somebody else told him that the car was not original enough to be of interest!!! Had a few "debates" recently, regarding "originality" of Vintage Bentleys. There are some people with the point of view that originality is the most important area to look at when considering buying. Prompting the debate, what is original? There is not a single car out there that has not been modified for one reason or another, either through regular maintenance or a desire to improve various aspects of comfort or performance. "Original" is usually taken to mean "matching numbers" and still retaining original body. Bentley owners bought a rolling chassis minus body and arranged their favourite coachwork company to supply and fit something to their taste of the moment. Then when they changed cars the body would sometimes be transferred to another car! So body changes were not uncommon, leaving the question, "If a body was changed in 1931, is the car with the new body regarded today as original and like wise the car the body was transferred to"? If the answer is yes, what is the cut off point? 1931, 1950, 2001? If a body is beyond repair, what do you do? A Le Mans rep is the usual answer, or sometimes a racing body in "The spirit" of the racing Bentley. Then if you buy a 6½ that still has the Smiths five jet carburettor that dumps fuel on the road under the car every time you switch off, causing a serious fire hazard, the thing to do is put some late SU carbs on that not only solves the problem but adds lots more horse power. Early privateers racing Bentleys often ended up putting the bigger engines in their cars as a means of winning races, these cars are still around today hailed as original racing cars! The Bentley Drivers Club themselves sell overdrive units for Vintage cars to enable said vehicles to drive in modern conditions (got one myself). My own car came as a pile of bits which included an unusable cylinder block, so an eight litre block which outwardly is exactly the same ((with the exception of the lower side plates having a few more screws holding it in place) was used. A vast improvement while at the same time solving a problem. In the marketplace today one could buy a very original Bentley, one that has all the same numbers that it had when it left the factory and the first body that was ever put on still intact. No enhancements whatsoever. You would certainly pay a premium for the privilege, but original it would be. On the other hand you could buy a newly build out and out race car that is probably 5% original Bentley and go and win races straight away. It will have VSCC papers etc so it will be a Bentley! And of coarse every thing in between is available. My personal view is this. The whole idea of owning a car like a Vintage Bentley is to have FUN with it. It will rarely be a very good investment. Buy a car that will do what you want to do. If you like touring, don't buy a racer, get a big engined reliable proven car. If your thing is to be the big banana at the local shows and BDC gatherings go for an early original as possible motorcar. On the other hand you might want loads of grunt to blat around Europe and impress the ladies. There is a Vintage Bentley out there to suit every body and they are worth what people are willing to pay. Life is too short to spend time criticising somebody else's choice. Like I said, enjoy the cars in which ever way you want and HAVE FUN!

Matching numbers are great, cars with modifications are fine, and cars assembled from parts or replicas are fine so long as the buyer knows exactly what they are getting and loves it for what it is.

Oh-that old discussion. As long as an item has some of its old soul it remains ok
Think of our own human body -all the body celles are renewed and replaced within x years again and again, and still we consider us being ourselves