LEGENDS OF LA SARTHE

SPEED BENTLEY SIX

RACE WINS 1929 1930

LAPS 179

DISTANCE COMPLETED 2930.6 KILOMETRES

IN THE NEARLY 100 years since, there hasn’t been a group of racers quite like the Bentley Boys. A collective of gentlemen racers, they won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times between 1924-30. Their success came off the back of Bentley’s impressive late-‘20s motor cars, which culminated in victories in ’29 and ’30 with the Speed Six.

The Speed Sixes driven by the factory backed Bentley Boys differed slightly to those sold to the public, with a ‘shortened’ wheelbase of 3353mm, with an extra 20kW (for a maximum of 150kW at 3500rpm) squeezed from the 6.5-litre straight-six due to an increased compression ratio.

On debut, the Speed Six crushed the opposition, running largely unopposed. By dawn on Sunday half the field had retired, allowing Bentley to stage a formation finish. Legend has it the victorious Bentley Boys then retired to a nearby estate, turned the driveway into a makeshift race