Otto Explains — Brand History
The History of Bentley
Short Answer
W.O. Bentley founded Bentley Motors in 1919, and its cars won Le Mans five times between 1924 and 1930, but the money ran out and Rolls-Royce bought the company in 1931. Bentleys have been built at Crewe since 1946. The business passed to Rolls-Royce Motors in 1971, to Vickers in 1980 and to the Volkswagen Group in 1998, which still owns it.
Who was W.O. Bentley?
Walter Owen Bentley, known as W.O., was born in 1888, the youngest of nine children. He started as a railway apprentice at Doncaster at 16 and raced motorcycles before he turned to cars. In 1912 he and one of his brothers began importing French DFP cars, and in 1913 he developed aluminium-alloy pistons that helped him set a flying-mile record of 89.7 mph at Brooklands.
How did aero engines lead to Bentley Motors?
Through his pistons. During the First World War W.O. used them to improve the Clerget aero engine, and the work led to the BR1 and BR2 rotary aero engines, BR standing for Bentley Rotary. After the war he was appointed MBE and received an award of £8,000 from the Commission of Awards to Inventors, money he used to start his own car company.
When was Bentley founded?
In 1919. Bentley dates its founding to 10 July 1919 and marked its centenary on 10 July 2019. W.O.’s aim was “to build a fast car, a good car, the best in its class”. The first prototype, EXP 1, was built at New Street Mews off Baker Street in London and first ran in October 1919, and EXP 2 was shown at the Olympia Motor Show that year. The first production 3 Litre was delivered in September 1921, built at Cricklewood in north London, the company’s home until 1931.
How did Le Mans make Bentley’s name?
By winning it again and again. Bentley won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. The 1924 win, by John Duff and Frank Clement, made Bentley the first British constructor to win the race. The drivers became known as the Bentley Boys, and one of them, Woolf Barnato, won all three Le Mans races he entered.
Why did Bentley lose its independence?
Because racing success did not bring financial security. Woolf Barnato, heir to a South African diamond fortune, invested in the struggling company and became chairman in 1926, with W.O. as chief engineer. The 8 Litre arrived in 1930 just as the Depression set in, demand fell, and in 1931 Rolls-Royce bought Bentley Motors; Volkswagen Group’s history dates the takeover to November 1931, and Bentley gives the price as £125,275. The company became Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd.
What changed under Rolls-Royce?
Where and how Bentleys were built. Production moved to the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, where Bentleys were made until 1940. The first Derby car, the 3½ Litre of 1933, was sold as “the Silent Sports Car” and shared no parts with the Cricklewood Bentleys. The Pyms Lane factory at Crewe was built in 1938 to make Merlin aero engines, and car production started there in 1946 with the Mark VI, the first car built at Crewe.
How did Bentley and Rolls-Royce grow closer after the war?
The two marques increasingly shared their cars. The Mark VI was the first Bentley with a Rolls-Royce equivalent, and it came with a factory-built Standard Steel body rather than only a chassis for a coachbuilder. In 1959 the S2 brought Bentley’s first V8, and the coachbuilder Mulliner officially became part of Bentley, with workshops in Crewe. The T Series of 1965 was sold by Rolls-Royce as the Silver Shadow. How these cars changed Bentley is the subject of Otto’s article on its legendary cars.
What happened to Bentley in 1971?
It changed owners with the rest of the car business. Problems with the RB211 aero engine led to Rolls-Royce being taken into state ownership, and Rolls-Royce Motors Limited was set up as a separate car company that included Bentley. It was floated as a public company in 1973. W.O. Bentley died in August 1971.
How did Vickers revive Bentley?
By giving Bentley its own performance identity again. The Vickers group bought the car business in 1980. That year the Mulsanne appeared, named after the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans, and the Mulsanne Turbo of 1982 had 50% more power than its predecessor. The Turbo R followed in 1985, and by the late 1980s Bentley was outselling Rolls-Royce two to one. In 1991 the Continental R became the first Bentley with its own body since 1952.
How did Volkswagen come to own Bentley?
Through the sale of 1998, which split Bentley from Rolls-Royce. Vickers launched the Arnage in April 1998, and on 3 July 1998 Volkswagen acquired the Bentley brand, the Crewe factory and the right to use the Rolls-Royce name until the end of 2002, while BMW acquired the Rolls-Royce name itself. After 67 years together, Bentley and Rolls-Royce became separate companies again. Volkswagen announced an investment of £500 million in Bentley, and in September 2002 the company was renamed Bentley Motors Ltd. Otto tells the other sides of this deal in the history of Rolls-Royce and the history of Volkswagen.
What did Bentley build under Volkswagen?
New families and a return to racing. The Continental GT of 2003 was the first all-new Bentley of the Volkswagen era, the first with all-wheel drive and the first with the W12 engine. Bentley went back to Le Mans in 2001 and on 15 June 2003 took first and second places, its sixth win. The Bentayga, its first SUV, was revealed in 2015, and in 2020 Bentley delivered 11,206 cars, its highest total at the time.
Where does Bentley stand today?
Still at Crewe and still owned by the Volkswagen Group. About 4,000 people work at Pyms Lane, and Bentley sells in 61 markets through 229 retail partners. Mulliner builds its coachbuilt cars, such as the Bacalar of 2020 and the Batur of 2022. On 23 September 2026 Bentley unveiled the Torcal, its first fully electric car, and its Beyond100+ strategy aims for the company to be exclusively electric from 2035.
Common Questions
- Is Bentley still part of Rolls-Royce? No. Rolls-Royce bought Bentley in 1931 and the two shared a car business until 1998, when Volkswagen acquired Bentley and BMW acquired the Rolls-Royce name. They have been separate companies since.
- Where are Bentleys built? At Pyms Lane in Crewe, England, where car production began in 1946. Earlier Bentleys were built at Cricklewood in north London until 1931 and at Derby until 1940.
- Who designed the Bentley Winged B? The motoring artist F. Gordon Crosby. He gave each wing a different number of feathers; that asymmetry was restored in the 1990s, and the current version dates from 2002.
- When did Mulliner become part of Bentley? In 1959, when it set up its workshops in Crewe. Mulliner’s roots go back to carriage building in the sixteenth century, and today it is Bentley’s bespoke and coachbuilding division.
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