Bentley’s Boyracer

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You may not want to believe this, but even here at PostWarClassic we do not know everything. The advantage is of course that when we come across something so odd that it even shocks us, we are willing to share it with you lot immediately. And the car seen above fits in perfectly with that theory. Would you believe us when we told you it’s a Bentley Continental Two-door Saloon? Of course you would as it is just that.

But how did it come about? Well, that’s a question we liked to see answered when we came across the car in Bonham’s catalogue for the Festival of Speed, next week. The car turns out to have been one of several made to measure for one mister McLeod. He had a soft spot for shortened cars, with their wheelbase pretty much unchanged but the wheels more or less at each corner and coachwork with minimum overhang. Apart from this one there have been several more. How about this Bentley Continental? Or this one? Both were also built for McLeod.

The example seen here started life as a 1964 Bentley S2 Continental with in this case a shortened (rolling) chassis before it was sent off to coachbuilders Park Ward. They turned it into something that must have been really unusual in 1964, when it drove around London wearing the registration number ‘H1’ as a Bentley Boyracer avant la lettre. But it may look just odd now. We do like it. Or do we? It’s hard to decide, really.

When McLeod decided he had enough of it, he did manage to attract a new owner for it. It is perhaps no surprise that it eventually ended up with Arnold George Dorsey in 1979. Hang on, who? Well, Dorsey is better known under his nom de plume Engelbert Humperdinck. But even after 39 years of owning it, the entertainer thinks it has now become time for somebody else. As Bonhams states: “A wonderful opportunity to acquire one of the more unusual variations on the Bentley Continental theme.” See more information here. Oh. And if you like your Bentley Continental in silver grey but slightly more down to earth, they have this one, too. It’s estimated to sell at almost ten times as much as the Bentley Boyracer, but then you won’t find anybody not liking your latest purchase…

(Words editor, pictures Bonhams)

   

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