Bentley starts production of Speed Six Continuation Series

Bentley is starting production of customer builds of the Speed Six Continuation Series as the final Bentley Blower Continuation Series customer car gets completed.

The two historic cars once raced as friendly rivals, with the Supercharged 4.5 Litre 'Blowers' being prepared and entered by the Hon Sir 'Tim' Birkin's private team, while the Speed Six was Bentley's winning works entry for Le Mans in 1929 and 1930. Forward back to this present day, and both cars have now come under the same roof, at the workshops of Mulliner - Bentley's bespoke and coachbuilding division.

Bentley's Mulliner team is starting production of customer examples of the Speed Six Continuation Series as the final Blower Continuation Series car gets completed

The development of the new Speed Six Continuation Series is said to have taken two original Speed Sixes as master models. The first is Bentley's own, while the second car, named 'Old Number 3', was loaned by its owner to provide the Mulliner team. The latter car was driven in the 1930 Le Mans 24 Hour race by Sammy Davis and Clive Dunfee.

The Mulliner Classic team also received assistance from the W.O. Bentley Memorial Foundation, which provided 80% of the original drawings and notes used. The Continuation cars will include modifications that were made by the Bentley works team to improve reliability and performance in the 1929 and 1930 Le Mans races.

Bentley's Speed Six Car Zero has already embarked on a test programme to achieve the equivalent of 35,000km of real-world driving across 8,000km of track driving

The series is also said to be built from over 600 individual new parts, including a new engine block casting which was fabricated to build the 6.5-litre race spec engine. Bentley states that initial testing shows that the new engines will develop 205bhp, close to the period specification.

Two Continuation Speed Six models, Car Zero and the Factory Works car, have already been built by Mulliner using a mixture of modern and traditional coachbuilding skills. The Bentley Speed Six Car Zero has already embarked on a test programme to achieve the equivalent of 35,000km of real-world driving across 8,000km of track driving.

Each Bentley Speed Six Continuation Series customer car will take 10 months to build, and customers will be able to enjoy a person fitting service in the Speed Six Factory Works to ensure they feel comfortable and in control at the wheel of their own models. Deliveries are scheduled to commence in 2025.