1925 Bentley 3 Litre Speed Model Tourer

This 1925 Bentley 3-Liter Speed Model Tourer is powered by a 2,996cc single overhead camshaft inline four-cylinder engine with four overhead valves per cylinder, and delivering 80 horsepower at 3,500 RPM. There is a four-speed close-ratio gearbox, leaf spring suspension, and four-wheel drum brakes with Perrot shaft actuation. Its engine, number 917, was the same one it left the factory with in 1925.

This Bentley was ordered in December 1924 through Blackpool agents Queen & Brighton Ltd, and delivered to its first owner Hubert Mason of Birkdale, near Southport in England. It was given coachwork by a Midlands coachbuilder, L.T. Taylor of Wolverhampton.

In 1926, the Bentley was sold to William Belrose and a year later to G.C. Campbell Taylor who retained it for the next six years. In late 1932 or early 1933, it was re-registered for the road, presumably by Taylor with plate 'RB 7566' which it still wears. The Bentley would have five additional owners through the 1930s.

In 1956 it was in the care of C.H. Elliot with whom it was registered with the Bentley Drivers Club. A. R. Larman purchcased it in 1965, and J. O. Stannard in 1970. It would remain with Mr. Stannard for five years before it was sold to A.J. Harper in 1980. By 2007 it was owned by Stanley Mann, with the current caretaker purchasing it in 2013. Since then, it has been given a refurbishment with a bare-metal repaint in British Racing Green and a newly matching interior completed by Classic Automobiles of Lancaster, California. The engine rebuild was performed by Mosier Restorations at a similar time. The work was rewarded with a class award at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2021

W.O. Bentley unveiled the new 3-litre car bearing his name at the 1919 Olympia Motor Exhibition, the prototype engine having fired up for the first time just a few weeks earlier. This 3-Litre is built on the short 117.5-inch frame reserved for the TT Replica and Red Label Speed Models. On its journey north from Bentley's Cricklewood factory in London to its owner Hubert Mason of Southport, it was bodied by the small coachbuilder L & L. T. Taylor of Wolverhampton, which operated from 1920 until 1927. Taylor built the bodies for a variety of different cars, including four 3 Litre Bentleys, but this is the only survivor, kept in very original condition by its 12 previous owners.