Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas: national velvet

By Martin Buckley

| 12 Jul 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas: national velvet

Loved as they are today, the ‘Derby’ Bentleys were viewed with the deepest suspicion by the hardcore owners of the ‘WO’-era cars.

If you valued the rugged, Edwardian appeal of the Cricklewood Bentleys, then you likely had no truck with the concepts of smoothness and ease of driving that characterised these silky, whispering machines.

They were the products of new thinking, but also commercial expediency, by a regime that was looking to bring much-needed volume to its business by building a car that would appeal to younger buyers.

When Rolls-Royce outbid Napier for the bankrupt Bentley firm in 1931, the Wall Street Crash was still a very fresh memory in a world gripped by the Depression.

Bentley moved from Cricklewood to Derby when Rolls-Royce took over in 1931

With military aero-engine contracts slowing down, the pressure was on to bring more chassis production into Derby as sales of the Phantom II and 20/25 stalled.

The deal proved an astute move on several levels.

As well as the satisfaction of having denied its closest rival in the aero-engine business, Napier, the chance to reassert itself in car manufacture, Rolls-Royce gained the physical assets and goodwill associated with Bentley’s Le Mans-winning reputation – and for a bargain price.

It was the perfect opportunity to expand the model range in the direction of a smaller, lighter car based on an 18hp entry-level Rolls-Royce already under development.

The Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas cabin is discreetly luxurious rather than showy

Launched at Olympia in 1933, after two years of dithering over final specification, the new 3½-litre could have emerged as a supercharged model, or a cheaper car in the Alvis/Lagonda idiom, had some factions had their way.

One of the keys to the appeal of these cars is the fantastic variety of mostly handsome coachwork they inspired: streamlined saloons, pillarless saloons, sports saloons and razor-edged saloons – not to mention the many and varied open tourers and Sedancas – that helped keep the still-flourishing UK coachbuilding industry busy, both in London and the provinces.

Although there were numerous one-offs, most were not bespoke in the true sense because buyers, usually ordering via dealers, chose from a catalogue of approved designs that were built in small batches.

This Bentley 4¼-litre is fitted with a rare Vanden Plas body

This concept brought Bentley (and Rolls-Royce) one step nearer to the idea of factory bodywork produced in quantity: Park Ward in particular built a handsome sports saloon that was effectively a standard, catalogued variant.

Indeed Park Ward, in which Rolls-Royce had a financial stake, built half of all Derby bodies.

In total, 60 different coachbuilders clothed the Derby Bentley chassis.

To maintain the car’s performance image, the factory discouraged customers from ordering anything too hefty, but was eventually forced to introduce the bigger, 4¼-litre engine in 1936 to neutralise the effects of ever more luxurious bodywork.

This Bentley 4¼-litre has trafficators mounted in the doors

A new gearbox fitted to the cars from October 1938, with its longer, overdriven top, made the MX and MR Derbys even more desirable, particularly for those who drove on the new autobahnen and autostrade of Continental Europe.

They would experience the benefits of reduced wear, noise and revs on Hitler’s and Mussolini’s new highways during the remaining few weeks and months of peace.

Vanden Plas, a name long associated with Bentley, was prolific on the 3½- and 4¼-litre chassis, but only built two bodies on these late and highly coveted overdrive versions, with more power and improved steering.

Both were to design number 1581, a handsome drophead displayed on the VdP stand at Earls Court in 1938, the last pre-war British motor show.

Huge Lucas P100 lamps dominate this classic Bentley’s frontal styling

The first, presented alongside the Kingsbury firm’s latest efforts on straight-eight Daimler and Alvis chassis, was described as a two-door, four-light cabriolet with excellent luggage accommodation – ‘for suitcases and golf clubs’ – designed for easy access and maximum comfort.

The window frames were chrome-plated, with interlocking glass guides to make the interior ‘draught-proof’, and sat flush when lowered.

Vanden Plas, noted for its neatly folding soft-tops, was particularly proud of this car’s semi-recessed hood, which was fully lined to give a saloon-car feel when raised and folded nearly flush with the tail of the body.

The Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas has a token rear window

Registered FLM 21 and delivered to a Miss Phillimore, chassis B42MR had trafficators in its doors and is thought to have been the first British car with opening quarterlights.

It was built to order for Mayfair Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin dealer Jack Olding of North Audley Street (who later introduced Caterpillar earth-movers to Britain) and was possibly unique for a drophead at the time in having an electrically operated rear-window blind.

While visitors to Earls Court marvelled at such luxury features, a sister car was being laid down.

This near-identical drophead was slated for display at the following year’s Continental shows.

The Bentley’s handbrake and right-hand gearchange

The Geneva and Brussels salons were by that time well-established showcases, but 1939 would host the last of their kind before WW2: a year after the Scottish-registered City of Brussels ferried chassis B76MR to Belgium in January ’39, the ship was requisitioned by the Germans.

On returning to England, the Bentley was registered CUK 99 and handed over to its first owner, Frank Howard Vaughan of Vaughan Brothers (Drop Forgings) in Birmingham, which produced American Yale locks – as used by R-R and Bentley – under licence.

It was delivered on 11 June 1939, nine weeks before the start of the war, finished in Chestnut Brown with Honey Gold striping, harmonised with Dunlopillo seating covered in Niger-grain Connolly hide.

The 4500rpm redline; Bentley owners were warned not to try their luck

Vaughan kept the Bentley until his death in 1960.

It was only just over 20 years old then, and still a capable – and highly saleable – motor car, probably worth the thick end of £1000.

Not even a Bentley can go on indefinitely, however.

CUK 99 had £85,000 of specialist restoration between 1995 and 2002, including a mechanical overhaul, extensive renovation of the chassis, ash frame and bodywork, and a colour change to pale blue.

The Vanden Plas-bodied Bentley 4¼-litre has elegant, flowing lines

There was a further £54,000-worth of recommissioning in 2022, after which it took part in the Derby class of the Cartier Style et Luxe at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The history file includes the buff logbook from 1960, a £29 16s invoice for the shipping to Belgium in 1939 and a picture of the previous owner taking his friend, cricket umpire Dickie Bird, to a village fête in CUK 99.

It presumably went to its current attractive apple green in its most recent round of fettling – a shame it wasn’t returned to Chestnut, but the colour suits it.

There may be a few better-looking Derbys than this, but not many.

London-based Vanden Plas had history with Bentley before it built this car’s drophead body

Its giant Lucas P100 headlights give an aura of confident command and its hood is beautifully proportioned, with a glass rear window so tiny it hardly seems worth the bother.

Like any upmarket pre-war car of British origin, its rear numberplate sits behind glass, while twin side-mounted spares (the sister car only has one), twin horns and a spotlight complete the effortlessly tasteful look.

The exposed hinges on the suicide doors jar slightly, but this was a near-universal feature of VdP bodies (and many others) at the time.

Sliding in, you make a conscious effort not to allow the right-handed gearlever to sneak up your trouserleg.

This Bentley 4¼-litre has side-mounted spare wheels on both front wings

The wood is pale and interesting rather than rich and glossy, but beautifully executed.

The windscreen winds out for ventilation and there is a smoker’s companion built into the dashboard, which, with its central instruments, looks close to what you’d find in a MkIV, an R-type or even an S-type years later.

The same goes for the steering wheel, except that it features ride control, advance and retard settings, and the choke lever around its hub.

The white-on-black speedometer stops at 110mph (you might get the ton with a following wind, but no more) and the redline is 4500rpm: Bentley issued dire warnings about over-revving.

The Bentley’s big ‘six’ is potent, but majors on refinement

The smaller dials deal with fuel, amps, water temperature and oil pressure.

The switchable ‘A’ and ‘B’ settings for the twin fuel pumps is a typical pre-war Rolls-Royce belt-and-braces approach.

To go with that tiny rear ’screen there is a tiny rear-view mirror. The door cards are deeply quilted and feature adjustable armrests.

True to the 1938 motor-show hype, the headlining really does make the Derby feel like a hardtop with the roof up (which is just as well, because it won’t be coming down today due to a sticky catch on the header rail), and there is plenty of room on the plump rear sofa with its three armrests and wind-down side glasses.

The Bentley’s thickly lined and snug-fitting hood adds to the sense of cost-no-object quality

Within the lifetimes of those who owned these cars new 80 years ago, the automobile had gone from a wheezing and unreliable plaything to a dependable friend that would take you anywhere.

Uncompromisingly engineered for reliability, the ‘silent sports car’ added to this formula an ease of use and a lack of fuss that motorists (even rich ones) could only have dreamed of two decades earlier.

This VdP-bodied car still lives up to that promise. Turn the tiny key, press the button and it starts without a stutter.

With its simple exhaust manifold, twin SU carburettors and giant airbox, everything about the presentation of the deep, square, enamel-black engine is about suppressing possible sources of noise.

‘Commanding top-gear stride pulled it into the 80s while proletarian vehicles struggled to maintain 50mph’

The exhaust note is an aspirant mutter that talks of refinement and expensiveness to the outside world, rather than ultimate power.

There was real urge here, though, by late-’30s standards: 125bhp, with a commanding top-gear stride that would pull this car decisively into the 80s and beyond, while proletarian vehicles struggled to maintain 50mph.

It still feels lively, and no embarrassment in modern traffic. The straight-cut first gear is optional, second being sufficient for pulling away briskly on the flat.

The right-hand change is positive and forgiving, the brakes amazingly strong and predictable, boosted by the usual Rolls-Royce gearbox-driven servo.

The Bentley’s steering wheel also controls the ride settings and the choke

Well-judged damping belies the primitive-sounding beam axles and leaf springs to produce a big car – with a not-very-stiff chassis – that handles reassuringly and forgivingly, with pleasantly direct and friction-free steering.

Motoring was no longer exclusively for the rich in 1938, but only the well-off could afford this kind of effortless travel to pull them away from the hordes along arterial roads that were still relatively deserted.

Its ability to climb hills rapidly and sparkling pick-up would have been outside the experience of most drivers.

Eight decades ago, this Bentley was one of few cars in which 400 miles in a day was a comfortable jaunt between breakfast and dinner, rather than an exhausting thrash.

The Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas drives well, despite its rudimentary beam axle and leaf springs set-up

How nice it must have been to have motored – people always ‘motored’ in the ’30s, rather than merely drove – out of London on quiet early-morning streets, pointing the massive headlights along the Great North Road, anticipating arrival at your Lancashire tripe factory by mid-morning and being deep into Scotland by early afternoon.

Even at a price (typically c£1500 including coachwork) that would have bought three average-sized houses, the Derby Bentley all but created its own market between 1933 and 1939.

Its mixture of superb build quality and 90mph performance combined with Rolls-Royce refinement made its position unassailable.

Some rivals could match its pace – depending on the coachwork – but nothing could beat the aspirational appeal.

The speedo reads to 110mph, but the Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas tops out at 100mph

For fast, dependable yet restful transport, the Derby was the car to have in an age when Rolls-Royce engineering was as near to a guarantee of reliability as you were likely to get.

The works could barely keep up with orders for this new breed, which outsold its competitors two-to-one (despite costing twice as much), yet with no significant effect on the sales of existing Rolls-Royce models.

It had the presence and dignity for formal occasions when you might engage a chauffeur, but wasn’t so unwieldy you wouldn’t take the wheel: the ideal combination for a generation who didn’t feel they were old enough to drive a Rolls-Royce just yet, but wanted something fast and undemanding.

The ‘Derby’ Bentley’s discreet wheel discs contrast with the exposed wires of ‘WO’-era cars

Anyone who could afford one bought one, from ukulele-plucking comic George Formby and band-leader Billy Cotton to Earl Howe and Sir Malcolm Campbell.

All were enthusiastic owners of this conception of what a Bentley for the 1930s should be: not a lumbering locomotive, but a swift touring machine created around the technology evolved for the small-horsepower Royces.

Even WO Bentley approved.

He famously – and very fairly, given his poor treatment at the hands of R-R – judged it the best car produced under his name up to that point.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Classic & Sportscar Centre

Factfile

Bentley 4¼-litre Vanden Plas

Sold/number built 1936-’39/1234 (all 4¼-litres, 201 MR/MX-series)
Construction steel chassis, aluminium body on ash frame
Engine iron block and head, alloy crankcase, ohv 4257cc straight-six, twin SU carburettors
Max power 125bhp @ 4500rpm
Max torque not quoted
Transmission four-speed manual with direct third and overdrive top, RWD
Suspension: front semi-elliptic leaf springs rear live axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs; hydraulic dampers f/r with driver override
Steering cam and roller
Brakes finned drums, with servo
Length 14ft 6in (4420mm)
Width 5ft 9in (1752mm)
Height 5ft 2in (1574mm)
Wheelbase 10ft 6in (3200mm)
Weight 3752lb (1702kg)
Mpg 17
0-60mph 15.5 secs
Top speed 96mph
Price new £1150 (chassis only, 1938)
Price now £180,000*