Nearly 80 years on, we still associate Bentley with Crewe, in north-western England. It wasn’t always thus; the hulking Le Mans racers of WO Bentley’s era were Londoners and, following Rolls-Royce’s take-over in 1931, Bentleys were built at the parent company’s works in Derby. From that point and up to 2004, all Bentleys were based on Rolls-Royce underpinnings and, until the advent of BMW V8s and V12s in 1998, shared only Rolls-Royce engines, too. They were marketed under the epithet of ‘the silent sports car’ and, when the first of these appeared in 1933, even WO himself declared: ‘I would rather own this Bentley than any other car produced under that name.’ Praise indeed.
While today’s VW-owned Bentley might cite the R-Type Continental Fastback as its greatest inspiration (and who wouldn’t?), perhaps it owes at least as much to a rather more pragmatic saloon that came from Crewe, Bentley’s home from 1938, and which went on sale as close as possible to the end of hostilities. That car is the MkVI Standard Steel sports saloon.
The Crewe location was chosen for a ‘shadow factory’ at which Rolls-Royce could produce the aero engines so necessary for the war effort. The town was well-placed for road and rail links, well away
