A History of Racing Bentleys

We love Bentley. We live by the "if you want to drive" adage. There are other luxury cars made for being chauffeured. We celebrate the brand that wants us behind the wheel.

With the introduction of the Continental GT, this image was only enhanced. The car spoke to the spirit of the brand's heritage while enticing celebrity buyers. You see, there's more to Bentley than luxury and prestige.

When W. O. Bentley founded the company it was with a race car. Since his legacy is currently working on an all new sports car for the Paris Motor Show at the end of the month, we've decided to take a look back at Bentley's racing heritage.

Buckle your seat belts, this is history at a brisk 0-60.

Follow @ComplexRides

W. O. Bentley, the company's founder, got addicted to motor racing while straddling a motorcycle, but he wanted more power. After the end of the great war, during which he was employed making engines for the Sopwith Camel fighter bi-plane, he went about crafting an innovative and powerful racing engine that was inspired by the aluminum pistons he had been using in motorcycles for several years.

Yep, Bentley is the bastard child of a high-strung racing motorcycle and an early fighter plane. By the end of the decade the Bentley 3-Litre had been born.

By the time the 1920s came around there was a car, and the venerable British magazine, Autocar, tested the prototype and loved it. The car went on to get its first victory at Brooklands in 1921, and won the British Double Twelve Hours a year later.

In 1923 the 3-Litre was present at the first ever running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and managed a fourth place finish. Naturally, W. O. wasn't satisfied with this, so he made some refinements to the 3-litre engine and also engineered 4.5 and 6.5 litre powerplants. In 1927 a 3-Litre Super Sport too first place at Le Mans, in 1928 a 4.5 Litre took first place, and in both 1929 and 1930 a Speed Six took first place.

Sadly, in 1931 Bentley was struggling financially due to the depression, and was secretly sold to Rolls-Royce. While Bentley's faithful were skeptical, W. O. described the first car he made in conjunction with Rolls as the best to ever bear his name.

The second World War stopped production of Bentleys as Britain entered a state of total war and the country's engineering talent was put to work creating war-machines. Once the war had finished, Bentley started making cars that were much more focused on luxury than sport. The 1946 Mark VI represented the first of a line of Bentleys that were, more or less, just shorter, more driver centric versions of Rolls-Royce's limos.

By this point, most of Bentley's speed-obsessed founders and faithful, including W. O., had left the company; motorsport was out of the question.

Mulsanne is the corner at the end of the straight at Le Mans, which just so happens to be the longest in the world and the site of much of Bentley's past glory. If the new Bentley sedan in 1980 was to be named Mulsanne, it had to have an engine that could back that name up. A 300hp turbocharged V8 was the solution that the engineers found, and it made for a sedan that could outpace even Ferraris of its day. Throughout the '80s Bentley began to take its sporting heritage back, and sales skyrocketed.

Bentley was looking like the company W. O. founded again.

In 1998 The Volkswagen Auto Group bought Bentley; British purists and nationalists were none too happy, but it would turn out to be a very good thing for the sporting side of Bentley.

VW set to building a 600hp racing car almost immediately. The Bentley Speed 8 started racing at Le Mans in 2001 and went on to place 3rd and 4th at 12 Hour of Sebring in 2003. The crown jewel in VW-owned Bentley's new crown was certainly when the car took the top spot at Le Mans once more. More than 80 years after Bentley's last victory at the legendary endurance race, the Company had come back to its roots.

At the same time, the company unveiled the Continental GT, which has been a very successful base for sports car racing one of the world's most desirable road cars.

Hot off the heels of the Continental GT Speed debut, Bentley unveiled a GT Speed-based racer that marked the company's triumphant return to motorsports, nearly a decade later. The GT3 adopted a rear-wheel-drive chassis, and the aerodynamic kit included a protruding front splitter, side skirts, and a large rear wing.

The GT Speed, Bentley's fastest road car ever, is essentially an off-track supercar. It's got an all-wheel-drive chassis, with a 60:40 ratio favoring the rear, lowered suspension, and a 616bhp W12 that can get to 60 in 4 seconds with a top speed of 205 mph. A Electronic Stability Programme also ensure a sticky feeling between the driver and the road.