People
Walter Owen Bentley is born in London
The youngest of nine children is born into a comfortable Victorian family in Hampstead. His mother’s family had made its money in Australia, and the boy’s first passion is locomotives rather than cars.
Crewe Edition · Origins
The Bentley story, from the first sketch to today.
Every model, the versions that mattered, the races that made the name and the people behind them. Scroll through the years, filter what you care about and open any moment for the details and sources.
152 moments · 43 model generations · 138 years
The making of W.O.
A railway apprentice discovers speed on motorcycles, sells French cars, sees an aluminium paperweight and ends the First World War as a designer of aero engines.
1888
1905
PeopleAt 16, W.O. starts at the Doncaster locomotive works
He leaves school for a premium apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway, which costs his father £75. He later calls those years “sweat and dirt”, and finishes them shovelling coal on express engines out of King’s Cross.
1907
PeopleA first motorcycle, a first taste of speed
W.O. rides a 3hp Quadrant in the 400-mile London to Edinburgh Trial, nurses it past its failures and earns a gold medal. Motorcycle racing, including the Isle of Man TT, follows.
1912
CompanyThe brothers start selling French DFP cars
W.O. and his brother Horace raise money from the family to take over the British concession for Doriot, Flandrin & Parant. Trading as Bentley and Bentley, they soon use racing to sell the cars.
1913
TechnologyAn aluminium paperweight gives W.O. his big idea
On a visit to the DFP factory near Paris, he sees a paperweight made of aluminium and wonders whether pistons could be made of the same metal. Lighter alloy pistons transform the DFP, and it takes records at Brooklands.
1914
PeopleW.O. takes his pistons to war
Commissioned in the Royal Navy’s air arm, he visits engine makers to show them what aluminium alloy can do. Rolls-Royce and Sunbeam are among those who adopt it for aero engines.
1916
TechnologyThe Bentley Rotary aero engines take shape
When the Clerget licensee rejects his changes, the Navy gives W.O. a team at Humber in Coventry. The result is the BR1, followed by the bigger BR2, and the BR1 powers later Sopwith Camels.
The Cricklewood years
A small team in a London mews builds a three-litre engine. The car wins at Le Mans within five years, yet the money runs out.
1919
CompanyW.O. Bentley founds Bentley Motors
With his brother Horace, W.O. sets out after the war to build what he describes as a fast car, a good car, the best in its class. The first recruits include Frank Burgess from Humber and Harry Varley from Vauxhall.
- Technology
The three-litre engine fires in a mews off Baker Street
W.O.’s team, with Clive Gallop working on the valve gear, produces a four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft and four valves per cylinder, an advanced recipe for a road car. It first runs in a small London mews, to the displeasure of the neighbours.
- New model
The first Bentley is shown at Olympia
A chassis appears at the London Motor Show in November, without a finished engine, and deposits start to arrive. Customers will wait almost two years for delivery.
1920
CompanyWork starts on the Cricklewood factory
Bentley builds its works at Oxgate Lane in north-west London. The site gives the first generation of cars the name still used for them, the Cricklewood Bentleys.
- New model
EXP 1 takes to the road
The first complete chassis, with a frame by Frank Burgess, is out on test runs by January. A long development period follows, because the car is nowhere near ready for customers.
1921
RacingEXP 2 wins the first time out at Brooklands
The second prototype becomes the first racing Bentley and takes a victory at Brooklands. It proves W.O.’s belief that competition is the way to sell cars, and the car survives as the oldest Bentley.
- New model
The first customer takes delivery of a 3 Litre
After a schedule that slipped from June 1920, the first production car leaves in September. It is delivered as a rolling chassis, and the buyer’s coachbuilder supplies the body.
1922
RacingA Bentley finishes 13th at Indianapolis
Douglas Hawkes takes an essentially standard 3 Litre to the Indianapolis 500 and runs the full distance, far from the specialist American racers ahead of him. Team and car then rush home for the Tourist Trophy.
- Racing
Team prize at the Isle of Man
W.O. himself drives in a three-car team at the Tourist Trophy with Hawkes and Frank Clement. All three finish, which no other team manages, and the 3 Litres take the team award.
1923
RacingFourth in the first 24 Hours of Le Mans
Dealer John Duff enters his own 3 Litre and borrows test driver Frank Clement. W.O. has called the race crazy and doubts any car can last, then crosses to France at the last minute to watch. The car finishes fourth and sets the fastest lap.
1924
RacingDuff and Clement win Le Mans
The lone 3 Litre now has factory help, four-wheel brakes and stone guards over its lamps and tank. Lorraine-Dietrich’s challenge falls away, a seized wheel nearly costs the race at the last stop, and the Bentley wins by a single lap.
1925
PeopleWoolf Barnato buys a 3 Litre
The heir to a South African diamond and gold fortune, known as “Babe” for his boxer’s build, buys a Bentley and wins at Brooklands. He soon learns that the supply of his favourite car may dry up.
- Racing
The black years at Le Mans begin
Two 3 Litres start in 1925 and neither sees the finish, one after a carburettor fire and one with fuel starvation. In 1926 all three retire, and the Davis and Benjafield car crashes late on when its brakes fade.
1926
CompanyBarnato takes control of Bentley
The cost of developing a six-cylinder car leaves the company close to collapse. Barnato pays more than £100,000, the old shares are nearly wiped out and he becomes chairman. W.O. stays on, now as an employee.
- New model
The 6½ Litre answers the heavy saloon
Buyers keep fitting heavy saloon bodies to the 3 Litre, which suffers for it. W.O.’s answer is a six-cylinder car on a longer chassis with roughly double the power and an unusual three-rod camshaft drive, a rival for the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The Bentley Boys
A diamond heir takes control, four straight Le Mans wins follow, and a supercharged car splits the company. Then the Depression arrives.
1927
New modelThe 4½ Litre brings back the four
Take two cylinders off the six and you have the new engine. The prototype, later called Old Mother Gun, leads and breaks the lap record at Le Mans before the White House crash, and the road car goes on sale shortly after.
- Technology
The factory tries a supercharger first
Two years before Birkin’s Blowers, the service department fits a Roots-type blower to a 3 Litre over the winter of 1926 to 1927. The experiment is rarely remembered, and W.O. remains convinced that more capacity is the better route.
- Racing
The White House crash takes out the whole team
As dusk falls, a Th. Schneider spins and blocks the White House curves. All three Bentleys are caught in the pile-up. Two are finished, and Sammy Davis limps the third to the pits, bent and with a broken headlamp.
- Racing
Old Number 7 wins Le Mans, battered and taped up
Davis repairs the car with what it carries, then he and Dudley Benjafield push it through a wet night. When the leading Ariès breaks its engine in the closing hours, the 3 Litre takes the win by 20 laps, the same car that crashed out in 1926.
1928
PeopleThe Bentley Boys in full cry
Barnato joins the drivers around whom the legend grows: Birkin, Davis, Benjafield, Kidston, the Dunfee brothers and others. Most are wealthy amateurs, but W.O. runs them from the pits with lap charts, rehearsed stops and strict orders on speed.
- Racing
Old Mother Gun beats the Stutz
Rebuilt after the White House, the prototype 4½ Litre carries Barnato and Bernard Rubin to the win after a long duel with an American Stutz. Birkin’s jammed wheel drops him to fifth with Jean Chassagne.
- Version
The Speed Six arrives
In October the 6½ Litre gains a sporting sibling with twin carburettors and a higher-performance camshaft. Often described as the most successful racing Bentley, it held a special place for W.O. himself.
1929
CompanyA profitable year ends in the Wall Street crash
Bentley makes a profit in 1929 and prepares its largest car yet. Then the October crash hits exactly the customers it depends on, and sales fall through the following year.
- Racing
A Blower catches fire in the Brooklands 500
Birkin’s car burns during the long-distance race when a cracked exhaust sets its fabric body alight. It later comes back with a single-seat aluminium shell, painted red and nicknamed the Brooklands Battleship.
- New model
Birkin’s Blower appears, against W.O.’s wishes
Tim Birkin wants a supercharger, W.O. says it would pervert the design, and Barnato lets Birkin go ahead anyway. Dorothy Paget pays, Amherst Villiers supplies the blower and a workshop at Welwyn Garden City builds the cars, which first race at Brooklands.
- Racing
One, two, three, four at Le Mans
Barnato and Birkin lead from start to finish in the Speed Six known as Old Number One, with three 4½ Litres filling the next places. It is the team’s best result in the race and comes as the company’s finances wobble.
1930
New modelThe 8 Litre arrives at the worst possible moment
W.O.’s last great car is a vast, quiet six-cylinder able to top 100 mph under heavy coachwork. It worries Rolls-Royce, whose Phantom II it threatens. But the market has gone, and only 100 are made.
- Racing
A Blower takes second in a Grand Prix
At Pau, Birkin strips a road-going Blower of its lights and wings and enters the French Grand Prix against a field of Bugattis. He finishes behind only Philippe Étancelin, the best international result the supercharged car ever scored.
- People
Barnato beats the Blue Train to London
Over dinner on the Riviera, Barnato offers a bet that his Speed Six can reach his London club before the express reaches Calais. He leaves as the train departs, drives through rain and fog, crosses the Channel and parks in St James’s with minutes to spare.
- Racing
A fourth straight win, then Bentley quits racing
Barnato and Glen Kidston beat Clement and Dick Watney in a Speed Six one-two after the Mercedes of Caracciola retires. Barnato has now entered three times and won three times. Bentley then ends its works racing programme.
- Company
Dorothy Paget stops funding the Blower team
The heiress ends her support for Birkin’s road-racing cars in October. She keeps paying for the single-seater at Brooklands.
1931
New modelThe 4 Litre, an unloved last throw
With new directors now making the decisions, the company seeks a cheaper model to take on the Rolls-Royce 20/25. A Ricardo engine goes into a shortened 8 Litre chassis. The result is too heavy, and only about 50 are built.
- Company
Bentley goes into receivership
Two mortgage payments fall due in July, and Barnato, the guarantor, does not meet them. A receiver is appointed on 10 July. Napier soon looks like the obvious buyer, with W.O. to design for it.
- Company
A mystery bidder turns out to be Rolls-Royce
At the sealed-bid sale, an unknown British Central Equitable Trust beats Napier with about £125,000. Only then does it emerge that the buyer is Rolls-Royce, and that W.O. himself is part of the deal. Its most serious rival is gone.
The Silent Sports Car
Under Rolls-Royce the name returns from Derby with a quieter character, while its founder leaves for Lagonda and a new factory rises at Crewe.
1932
CompanyThe Cricklewood works are gone
Rolls-Royce stops production and sells the premises, keeping the service department at Kingsbury to look after existing cars. For about two years the marque builds nothing at all.
- Racing
Birkin’s Blower sets the Brooklands lap record
In the red single-seater, Birkin raises the Outer Circuit lap record to nearly 138 mph, on a track notorious for its bumps. It is the last great act of the Cricklewood cars, a year after their maker has gone.
1933
PeopleTim Birkin dies at 36
Perhaps the most glamorous of the Bentley Boys, he burns his arm on an exhaust pipe at the Tripoli Grand Prix in May. An infected wound, malaria or both follow, the sources cannot say which, and he dies in London a few weeks later.
- New model
The first Derby Bentley: the “Silent Sports Car”
Built around a tuned Rolls-Royce 20/25 engine, it is launched in September with far more refinement than noise. Some old customers are disappointed. W.O. himself is reported to rate it above any earlier car to carry his name.
1934
RacingEddie Hall takes a Derby Bentley to the TT
Rolls-Royce has set its face against racing, but private owner E.R. Hall has his 3½ Litre lightened for the Ulster Tourist Trophy. He finishes second and repeats that result in 1935 and 1936.
1935
PeopleW.O. leaves for Lagonda
Unhappy and sidelined, he walks out when his contract expires and joins a Lagonda newly rescued by Alan Good. The marque carries on without its founder.
1936
VersionA bigger engine: the 4¼ Litre
Coachwork keeps getting heavier, so a wider bore lifts capacity to about 4¼ litres to keep the sporting image alive. Park Ward remains the favourite coachbuilder, and 1,234 are built by the end.
1937
PeopleA V12 from W.O.’s team at Lagonda
Away from his old name, W.O. leads the work on what is often called his masterpiece, a 4.5-litre V12 launched in 1937 with 180 bhp. In 1939 Lagondas with this engine come third and fourth at Le Mans.
1938
DesignThe Embiricos Bentley: a glimpse of the future
Greek racer André Embiricos orders a streamlined coupé on a 4¼ Litre chassis, designed by Georges Paulin and built by Pourtout in Paris. Its shape and speed set Rolls-Royce thinking about a fast aerodynamic Bentley.
- Company
Work starts at Crewe, for aero engines
Rearmament needs a shadow factory for Merlin engines, and farmland at Crewe is chosen. Construction starts in July, and the first engine leaves five months later. It is the site that will one day become the home of Bentley.
1939
New modelThe Mark V, stopped by the war
A new chassis with independent front suspension is meant for the 1939 Motor Show when war is declared. Production stops almost at once and only a handful reach private owners. Sources disagree on the exact number.
- Design
The first Corniche is lost at Dieppe
Inspired by the Embiricos, a light four-door Mark V with a Georges Paulin body is sent to France for high-speed testing. It is damaged in a crash, and the body is lost at Dieppe in the war. The idea survives and returns in 1952 as the Continental.
- Company
Rolls-Royce buys Park Ward
The London coachbuilder, already a favourite for Derby Bentleys and a pioneer of all-steel bodies for Rolls-Royce, becomes part of the group.
Crewe and the Continental
An aero-engine plant turns to cars. Complete steel saloons replace the bare chassis, and a fastback from H. J. Mulliner restores the sporting name.
1943
CompanyCrewe at full stretch
The factory reaches its wartime peak with 10,000 workers, and some 25,000 Merlin engines are built there during the war. That skilled workforce is part of what Rolls-Royce gains when cars later move in.
1946
CompanyThe motor division moves from Derby to Crewe
With jets taking over at Derby, Rolls-Royce sends car production to its aero-engine plant at Pyms Lane. Crewe workers have to be retrained, and the site has stayed the home of the marque ever since.
- New model
The Mark VI: the first Bentley sold complete
For the first time a customer can buy a finished car from the factory, a Standard Steel saloon with a body pressed by Pressed Steel. Punishing post-war taxes and a need for export currency drive the change, though coachbuilders can still have a chassis.
1947
PeopleW.O.’s engine ends up in an Aston Martin
David Brown buys Lagonda largely for the 2.6-litre straight-six developed under W.O. It goes into the DB2, so an engine from Bentley’s founder powers the early Aston Martins of the David Brown era. W.O. moves on to Armstrong Siddeley.
1949
RacingThe old Embiricos comes sixth at Le Mans
When the race returns after a decade, Soltan Hay and Tommy Wisdom bring a privately entered, 11-year-old coupé home in sixth place. The same car returns in the next two years and finishes each time.
1950
RacingEddie Hall drives Le Mans alone
Hall brings his old TT car back with a streamlined coupé body and finishes eighth, doing the entire 24 hours himself. The results list only his name against the car.
1951
VersionThe Mark VI gets a “big-bore” engine
Capacity rises from 4,257 cc to 4,566 cc for the last versions of the car, bringing a useful gain in performance and setting the base for the R Type.
1952
New modelThe R Type Continental: 120 mph with four seats
A lighter, tuned chassis wears an aluminium fastback by H. J. Mulliner, shaped in the Rolls-Royce wind tunnel. It is marketed as the fastest production four-seater in the world and is Britain’s most expensive car. About 208 are built.
- New model
The R Type doubles the boot
The Standard Steel body gets a longer tail with about twice the luggage room. The new car is known in development as the Mark VII, and the R Type name comes from the chassis series. An automatic gearbox becomes available.
In the shadow of Rolls-Royce
The V8 and the monocoque arrive, but Bentley becomes a different grille on a Rolls-Royce. Its parent then collapses, and sales fall to a sliver of Crewe’s output.
1955
New modelThe S1: a Bentley that is a Silver Cloud
A new body and a 4.9-litre six replace the R Type, with an automatic gearbox as standard. The rationalisation is complete: only the grille and badges separate it from the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. It is the last Bentley with a six-cylinder engine.
- Version
The Continental name carries on
A high-performance S Continental follows the saloon within months, sold only as a chassis for special bodies by H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward, James Young and others. It keeps a sporting line alive that the saloons have lost.
1957
DesignH. J. Mulliner invents the Flying Spur
The coachbuilder puts four doors on the Continental chassis, creating a fast saloon that keeps the style of the two-door cars. The name will come back on Bentleys in the 21st century.
1959
TechnologyThe S2 brings the V8
An all-aluminium 6.2-litre V8, designed in-house, replaces the old straight-six. Power steering becomes standard. In enlarged form, the engine will stay in Bentleys for 60 years.
- Company
Rolls-Royce buys H. J. Mulliner
One of the last independent coachbuilders, and creator of the Continental’s fastback, comes in-house after financial trouble. Joined to Park Ward, it becomes the group’s bespoke arm, Mulliner Park Ward, in Willesden.
1962
VersionFour headlamps and the last separate chassis
The S3 gets a four-headlamp face and a lower bonnet line. Little else changes, but it is the end of an era: chassis remain on offer to coachbuilders only until this model bows out.
1965
New modelThe T series: Bentley’s first monocoque
A Bentley-grilled Silver Shadow abandons the separate chassis for a unitary body, and adds disc brakes all round and self-levelling independent suspension. It is a big technical leap, yet only the grille and badges tell it apart from its sister.
1968
DesignPininfarina’s one-off T1 coupé
The Italian house builds a single Coupé Speciale on the T1, drawn by Paolo Martin. It stays a rare coachbuilt departure in a badge-engineered era.
1970
TechnologyThe V8 grows to 6¾ litres
The engine reaches the capacity it will keep for decades, with no real gain in top speed. The “6¾” becomes a defining number for big Bentleys.
1971
CompanyRolls-Royce collapses, and the cars are split off
The cost of the RB211 jet engine bankrupts Bentley’s parent, and the government nationalises the aero business. The receiver puts cars and Bentley Motors (1931) into a new company, Rolls-Royce Motors.
- New model
The two-door cars get the Corniche name
The coupés and convertibles built by Mulliner Park Ward take the name of the lost 1939 prototype. A Bentley version is sold alongside the Rolls-Royce.
- People
W.O. Bentley dies
He dies in Surrey aged 82, a revered patron of the drivers’ club that keeps his cars running. He had retired long before, and had lived to see his old racing machines become treasured collectors’ pieces.
1973
CompanyRolls-Royce Motors becomes a separate company
When a sale by tender fails to bring high enough offers, the car business is floated off from the nationalised aero company. Bentley goes with it, but by this decade it accounts for about one car in twenty at Crewe.
1977
VersionThe T becomes the T2
Bentley's version of the Silver Shadow gets its final update: rack-and-pinion steering, rubber-faced bumpers and a new fascia. It still differs from the Rolls-Royce mainly in its grille.
Vickers and the turbo
A new owner and one turbocharger start a revival. Within a decade Bentley is outselling Rolls-Royce.
1980
CompanyVickers buys Rolls-Royce Motors, and Bentley with it
The armaments and engineering group takes over a business in which fewer than one car in twenty now wears a Bentley badge. Its new owner sees what the name could still be worth.
- New model
A Bentley with a name again: the Mulsanne
After R, S and T, the new saloon breaks the run of single letters. It takes its name from the Le Mans straight, a reminder of the wins of the 1920s, though underneath it is a Silver Spirit with another grille and badges.
1982
New modelThe Mulsanne Turbo brings forced induction back
A Garrett turbocharger lifts output by about half, and this one is for Bentley only: Rolls-Royce gets no equivalent. It is the first blown Bentley since Birkin's day and the start of the marque's revival.
1984
New modelThe Eight opens the range at a lower price
With a wire-mesh grille, less equipment and firmer suspension, the Eight is aimed at buyers of big Mercedes and BMW saloons. It starts under £50,000, some £6,000 below the Mulsanne.
- Version
The Corniche convertible is renamed Continental
A famous name returns to a design dating back to the 1960s. The four-seat convertible stays on sale until 1995, keeping essentially the same shape for almost 30 years.
1985
New modelTurbo R: R stands for roadholding
The Mulsanne Turbo was fast but soft. Stiffer anti-roll bars, firmer dampers and wider tyres on Bentley's first alloy wheels turn it into a car that can also go round corners.
1987
VersionMulsanne S: the Turbo R's manners, no turbo
The non-turbo saloon borrows the Turbo R's wheels and interior, with a centre console and rev counter, and a firmer ride. From the 1989 model year it also gets twin round headlamps.
1989
CompanyHalf the cars leaving Crewe are Bentleys
Six years earlier the badge was on fewer than one car in twenty. Sporting models have turned the junior brand into an equal partner of Rolls-Royce.
1991
New modelContinental R: a Bentley body at last
Unveiled at Geneva, the big coupé uses the Turbo R's running gear under a shape shared with no Rolls-Royce. It shows what the marque can be when it stands on its own.
1992
CompanyBentley outsells Rolls-Royce two to one
Ten years after the Mulsanne Turbo, two Bentleys are sold for every Rolls-Royce. The brand that had almost vanished into its owner now carries it.
- New model
The Brooklands replaces Mulsanne S and Eight
A naturally aspirated saloon sits below the Turbo R, named after the banked Surrey track where Bentley's early cars raced. A light-pressure turbo arrives in 1996.
1994
DesignThe Java: a smaller Bentley, and a sultan's order
Shown at Geneva on a BMW 5 Series platform, the concept was never meant for production. Bentley still builds 18 for the Sultan of Brunei: six coupés, six convertibles and six estates.
- Technology
Vickers chooses BMW engines for the next cars
Without the money to develop new engines, Crewe's owner reaches an agreement with Munich. The next Bentley and Rolls-Royce will carry BMW power, a decision with huge consequences four years later.
1995
New modelThe Azure opens up the Continental R
The four-seat convertible debuts at Geneva. With Crewe short of space, Pininfarina helps develop it and builds the shell and soft-top in Italy before final assembly in England.
1996
VersionContinental T: shorter, sharper, faster
Ten centimetres come out of the Continental R's wheelbase and more power goes in. Inside, the fascia is engine-turned aluminium.
1997
CompanyVickers puts Rolls-Royce and Bentley up for sale
The chronically underfunded car maker goes on the market. BMW, which already supplies its engines, looks like the natural buyer.
The fight for Crewe
BMW and Volkswagen battle for the company, the two brands split, and Bentley returns to Le Mans.
1998
New modelThe Arnage, with a BMW heart
The first all-new Bentley design since 1980 shares its body with the Silver Seraph and takes its name from a Le Mans corner. Vickers gives it a twin-turbo 4.4-litre BMW V8.
- Company
Volkswagen outbids BMW for Crewe
BMW's £340 million offer looks decisive until Volkswagen comes in with £430 million. Volkswagen gets the factory, the designs and the famous grille, but a nasty surprise is waiting in the small print.
- Company
The name goes one way, the factory the other
The Rolls-Royce name and logo belong to the aero-engine company, which licenses them to BMW for £40 million. A deal gives Volkswagen Bentley and Crewe, and the use of the Rolls-Royce name only until the end of 2002.
1999
VersionRed Label: the old V8 returns
Unwilling to depend on a rival for its engines, Volkswagen puts the 6.75-litre pushrod V8 into the Arnage. By one account it was Ferdinand Piëch's first engineering order, and sales in 2000 jump by half.
- Design
Hunaudières: a 16-cylinder show of intent
Under its new owner, Bentley shows a concept at Geneva with an eight-litre W16. The name is that of the Le Mans straight, where the marque's legend was made.
2000
VersionThe BMW-engined Arnage bows out as the Birkin
The last 4.4-litre cars are named after Bentley Boy Tim Birkin. Fifty-four were planned, matching the original Blowers, but 52 are completed.
2001
VersionAn Arnage to mark the comeback
The road cars celebrate the return to the Sarthe with a limited Arnage Le Mans. Bentley plans 150 and ends up making 153, alongside Le Mans editions of the Continental.
- Racing
Bentley returns to Le Mans after 71 years
Two EXP Speed 8s start in the closed-prototype class. One retires; the other takes third behind two Audi R8s, and the crew walk onto the podium in white overalls and leather headbands.
2002
DesignParis sees the Continental GT
The car meant to change everything is shown at the Paris Motor Show. Smaller and lighter than any recent Bentley, it is designed to win new, younger customers.
- Racing
Fourth at Le Mans, the best non-Audi
A single car runs as a test for the real attack, with a new four-litre V8 commissioned by Bentley. Wallace, van de Poele and Leitzinger finish behind only the factory R8s.
- People
Franz-Josef Paefgen takes charge
Tony Gott, chief executive since the takeover, hands over. Paefgen leads Bentley through the Continental GT boom, the Le Mans win and the crash that followed, until 2011.
- Version
The Arnage T arrives in Detroit
Two years of re-engineering with Volkswagen know-how produce a far stiffer car and a re-worked twin-turbo V8. The Arnage has finally caught up with its engine.
- New model
A Bentley for the Queen
For the Golden Jubilee, Elizabeth II receives the State Limousine at Windsor, the first Bentley ever supplied for her ceremonial fleet. It is far longer and taller than an Arnage, with rear-hinged coach doors. Two are built.
- Company
Bentley Motors Ltd is the company's name again
What had been Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars drops the other name. Volkswagen also brings V8 engine building, outsourced under Vickers, back to Crewe.
Le Mans and the GT boom
A sixth Le Mans win and one new coupé take Bentley from a tiny coachbuilder to a maker of 10,000 cars a year.
2003
New modelThe Continental GT changes what Bentley is
A twin-turbo W12, four-wheel drive and bodies from Zwickau: nothing is carried over. The first truly new Bentley of the Volkswagen era takes the firm from under 1,000 cars a year to close to ten times that.
- Racing
Bentley goes home and stays there
With a second win there for the taking, Paefgen ends the programme after the victory. The two winning cars retire from competition, and the decision still rankles with some at Bentley years later.
- Company
After 71 years, Bentley and Rolls-Royce part
From New Year's Day Volkswagen makes only Bentleys at Crewe, while BMW starts building Rolls-Royces at Goodwood. The two old rivals are competitors again.
- Racing
A one-two at Le Mans, 73 years after the last win
From pole, the No. 7 Speed 8 of Kristensen, Capello and Smith leads 369 of 377 laps, with the sister car second. No make has ever waited longer between overall wins.
2005
New modelA four-door Continental revives the Flying Spur name
Designed alongside the coupé, the W12 saloon sells so well that Crewe cannot keep up. For a while, some cars are built at Volkswagen's glass factory in Dresden.
- Version
The Continental GTC completes the family
A soft-top four-seater joins the coupé and saloon, with a roof made by Karmann in Germany and a top speed above 190 mph. It goes on sale in late 2006.
2006
New modelThe Azure returns, this time on the Arnage
After a three-year gap, a show car at Los Angeles draws enough interest to become the new Azure. It uses the Arnage platform and the old twin-turbo V8.
2007
CompanySales top 10,000 for the first time
Bentley delivers 10,014 cars and reports a record profit. A few years earlier it was making fewer than 1,000 cars a year.
- New model
The Brooklands name returns on a coupé
A hardtop version of the Azure, shown at Geneva, succeeds the Continental R and T. Production is capped at 550, and its V8 gives more torque than any production petrol V8 of the time.
Slump and revival
Sales halve overnight. A new flagship, a new GT and the decision to build an SUV at Crewe bring the company back.
2009
CompanyThe crash halves sales
Two years after breaking 10,000, Bentley sells 4,616 cars and makes an operating loss of €194 million.
- Version
The Arnage bows out after 11 years
The last link to the Rolls-Royce era ends with a Final Series, which also marks 50 years of Bentley's V8. A run of 150 is announced in 2008.
- Version
Supersports: a faster GT that also drinks biofuel
A lighter two-seat Continental with 630 PS is the first Bentley able to run on petrol or E85 ethanol. The name goes back to the 1920s 3 Litre that could reach 100 mph.
- New model
The Mulsanne name returns on a Crewe-designed flagship
Unveiled at Pebble Beach in the middle of the slump, on the main stage normally kept for the concours winner, it is the first Bentley developed independently since W.O.'s 8 Litre.
2011
CompanyA new Continental GT brings back profit
The second generation goes on sale with more distinct lines and more interior space. Sales rise 37% to 7,003 and Bentley returns to the black.
- Racing
205 mph on the frozen Baltic
Four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen takes a Continental Supersports convertible to a world speed record on ice, off the coast of Finland, on biofuel. He beats his own mark of 2007.
2013
New modelThe Flying Spur drops Continental from its name
The new saloon, shown at Geneva, is meant to move away from the coupé in character and towards opulence, though the two still share their engineering. A cheaper V8 follows.
- Company
The SUV will be built in Crewe, not Bratislava
Volkswagen had considered Slovakia, where it already makes SUVs. Instead, David Cameron visits Crewe to welcome an £800 million investment and 1,000 jobs, 400 of them at Bentley itself.
2014
RacingThe Continental GT3 wins at Silverstone
Bentley's customer racing car, entered by M-Sport, wins the second round of the Blancpain Endurance Series. It is the marque's first official British race entry since 1930.
- Company
Sales pass 11,000
Five years after the slump, 11,020 cars go to customers. The new V8 engines and the fastest road-legal Bentley so far, the GT Speed, help.
The SUV and the centenary
The Bentayga becomes the best-seller, a third GT arrives, and Bentley turns 100 looking at an electric future.
2015
DesignEXP 10 Speed 6: the sports car that stayed a concept
Smaller than a Continental GT, the two-seat hybrid concept tests whether customers want a true Bentley sports car. It never reaches production, but its lines shape the next Continental GT.
- New model
The Bentayga: Bentley's first SUV
Revealed at Frankfurt after a much-criticised 2012 concept was restyled, it takes its name from the Roque Bentayga rock in Gran Canaria. It sells out its first year and becomes Bentley's most popular model.
2017
VersionThe first diesel Bentley
A four-litre V8 derived from Volkswagen Group diesels arrives in the Bentayga, the only Bentley to get one.
- New model
Third-generation Continental GT
Bentley announces the car in full before its Frankfurt debut. Sharper, lighter and technically new, it reaches customers in 2018 and owes much to the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept.
2018
PeopleAdrian Hallmark returns as chairman and CEO
A former Bentley sales and marketing director from 1999 to 2005, he arrives in a difficult business moment. In six years he oversees new models and the plan to make Bentley sustainable.
2019
RacingA Continental GT breaks the Pikes Peak production record
With Rhys Millen driving, the W12 coupé cuts 8.4 seconds off the production car record for the 12.42-mile Colorado climb, finishing in just over ten minutes.
- New model
A new Flying Spur on a new platform
The third generation shares its platform with the Continental GT and Porsche Panamera and adds rear-wheel steering. Its upright grille slats recall Bentleys of the Rolls-Royce years.
- Design
A hundred years, and a vision of 2035
Bentley marks its centenary at Crewe with the EXP 100 GT, a huge electric concept with doors that scissor upward. It imagines what a Bentley grand tourer could be in 2035.
- Version
Bentley will build twelve new Blowers
Using its own 1929 team car as the pattern, Mulliner sets out to recreate the supercharged 4½ Litre. Bentley calls it the first pre-war continuation series of its kind. The prototype, Car Zero, takes 40,000 hours.
Beyond100: the electric turn
Coachbuilding returns, the old V8 and the W12 retire, the electric deadline moves, and the first electric Bentley appears.
2020
CompanyA record year, in the middle of a pandemic
Despite a seven-week factory shutdown, Bentley delivers 11,206 cars, the most in its 101 years, helped by strong growth in China.
- New model
Bacalar: coachbuilding returns to Crewe
Mulliner reveals a two-seat barchetta at Crewe, the rarest two-door Bentley of the modern era. Twelve are built at £1.5 million each, all allocated before the public sees the car.
- Technology
The last Mulsanne takes the old V8 with it
After just over 7,300 cars, the flagship ends. So does the 6¾-litre pushrod V8, in production since the S2 of 1959: it can no longer meet emissions limits, and there is no replacement.
- Version
A heavily revised Bentayga
The SUV, by now Bentley's best-seller, gets new lights, a tailgate that spells out the name and a roomier rear.
- Company
Beyond100: only electric cars by 2030
A century-old maker of huge petrol engines commits to selling only electric cars within ten years. The target would later move back.
2022
CompanyMore than 15,000 cars in a year
Bentley delivers 15,174 cars and more than 40% of them are Bentaygas. Operating profit reaches €708 million, the best in its history, as buyers pay extra for personalisation.
- Company
Bentley is placed under Audi
Volkswagen Group consolidates its premium brand arm, and Crewe now answers to Audi, in a group that also includes Lamborghini and Ducati.
- Company
£2.5 billion for a Dream Factory at Crewe
Bentley commits to spending the money over ten years and to building its first electric car in Britain, at a rebuilt Crewe site.
- Version
The Bentayga stretches to replace the Mulsanne
With 180 mm more length, rear-wheel steering and a V8, the Extended Wheelbase is meant to take over rear-seat duties from the discontinued flagship.
- New model
Batur: a design revolution, and a W12 send-off
Eighteen coupés at £1.65 million each, all spoken for, are shown at Monterey with the most powerful Bentley engine yet. The car points the way for the brand's future designs. A convertible with 16 examples follows.
2023
VersionA new Speed Six, 93 years on
After the Blower, Mulliner recreates Bentley's most successful racer. Car Zero debuts at Goodwood, with 12 customer cars already sold.
2024
PeopleFrom Porsche to Crewe: Frank-Steffen Walliser
Hallmark leaves in March by mutual consent, and the engineer behind the Porsche 918 Spyder becomes chairman and CEO. He has been at Porsche since 1995, for a time running its motorsport department.
- New model
A V8 hybrid is the most powerful Bentley yet
The fourth-generation Continental GT Speed replaces the W12 with a plug-in V8 making 782 PS and 1,000 Nm. It brings the biggest change to the car's face in two decades, with single headlamps.
- Technology
The last W12 leaves the line
After 105,000 engines in two decades, Bentley ends production of the 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12 that powered the Continental GT revolution. The last ones go into cars such as the Batur Convertible.
- Company
Beyond100+ moves the deadline to 2035
Bentley extends its plan by five years, keeps plug-in hybrids until 2035 and promises a new hybrid or electric model each year. The first electric car is confirmed for 2026.
2026
Company275 jobs at risk as Bentley rebuilds Crewe
Announcing operating profit of £186 million for 2025, Bentley says management, agency and non-manufacturing roles are affected, while it invests in a Design Centre, a Paint Shop and an electric assembly line.
- New model
Torcal: the first electric Bentley
Unveiled in London, the brand's fourth model line is an SUV built at Crewe and named after the Torcal rocks in Spain. Its sound is performed by musicians inspired by the beat of the old 6¾-litre V8.
Every model, at a glance
Production years of each road-car generation. Tap a bar to see its notable versions.
Cricklewood
Derby
Crewe saloons
Continental
S Series
T Series
Mulsanne & Turbo R
Azure
Arnage
Flying Spur
Mulsanne 2010
Bentayga
Torcal
Mulliner Coachbuilt
Racing
Think you know the story now?
Today’s daily has ten questions on these cars. Same for everyone, two minutes.