Which Ten Bentley Models Reign Supreme Over All the Rest

When we hear the name "Bentley" many of us will automatically picture a very luxurious vehicle with the Flying B emblem on the grille. Bentley delivers an exceptional machine with a pedigree you would expect from a vehicle with this much class and luxury, and we automatically associate the nameplate with wealth and sophistication. What many do not realize is that the founder, Walter Owen Bentley, came up from a humble start in the motorcycle racing arena. He worked briefly at locomotives, and then at maintaining a fleet of cabs before diving into the automotive business with his brother.

This is where the founder of Bentley made his mark on the the modern motorized world way back in 1919. His penchant for going fast on motorcycles led him to create fast automobiles, and the rest is truly history. He liked to tinker with internal combustion engines, and was a natural engineer, and as a result he was capable of putting things together in ways that others had simply not envisioned before him.

The modern Bentley we see here in the United States are typically associated with famous people including movie and music stars, plus the rich and the beautiful. There are quite a few plain Jane wealthy folks out there who appreciate the fine quality of a well built and beautiful automobile.

The entertainment industry has been using Bentley cars in movies and television for quite some time now, and various models have been in such well known works as; James Bond Goldfinger, The French Connection, Scarface, Austin Powers, The Avengers, even the Simpson's had a Bentley on an episode!

Where it all began, the first real Bentley.
1) The most profound model Bentley ever made was easily the 3 Liter which is really where the Bentley legend began. The stroke of genius came when he pioneered the use of Aluminum Alloy pistons in these four cylinder Bentley engines. This important change made his engines lighter and more responsive, plus it gave them added power. A testament to this fact is the extensive use of Aluminum Alloys in modern internal combustion engines. Two words which characterized the early Bentley models have to be stout and durable. These were built like locomotives in sharp contrast to the lighter more fragile competitors of the day such as the Bugatti car line.

Being number two is not that bad.
2) In my vision of this car company's evolution I feel that the second most important Bentley of those early years would have to be the 4.-1/2 Liter Blower Bentley. One of the more interesting design components on this model was the way they mounted the blower at the front of the engine, below the radiator protruding through the front grille. This model won speed records on the Brooklands racing circuit, with top speed of 137.96 miles per hour!

Was Bentley The first to "Supersize"?
3) the Bentley 8 Liter has to be one of the coolest looking cars of the original Bentley era. The massive straight six cylinder engine produced enough horsepower to give this car a top speed of 125 miles per hour. It was the most luxurious Bentley ever made before the company was taken over by Rolls Royce. The engine used four valves per cylinder and twin spark ignition, both of which happened to be state of the art engineering of the day. These type open bodied cars are amazing to me when you consider how rudimentary the manufacturing tools were at the time.

The Bentley line faltered during the great depression and the company was taken over by the Rolls Royce company. From 1931 until 1998 Bentley was a part of Rolls Royce, and as a result they assumed much of the same styling and design features as their parent company's cars. There were some years in there that an average person could not really tell the Rolls from the Bentley.

Rolls Royce produces the first notable Bentley.
4) The first Rolls Royce Bentley was the 1933 model Bentley 3-1/2 Liter, and was remarkable in that it actually blended the luxurious comfort of Rolls Royce designs yet packaged it into a robust and sporty Bentley. In essence the two designs merged into one product very well in this first Bentley from Rolls Royce.

The golden age of the Touring car.
5) 1936 Bentley 4-1/4 Tourer is to me the epitome of that era's really slick looking touring car. With it's long front end and very low ride, super tall tires, plus the open top design, this would have to be an amazing car to drive along the coast or any long winding road.

Finally real success after a very long time .
6) One model stands out for me during the long time that Bentley was owned by Rolls Royce as a truly special car, and it was to forbear more promising and powerful models to come. The 1980 Mulsanne model heralded in a new era of performance and luxury which had been lost to the Bentley models over time. This higher performance model gained some important performance add on technologies during it's run, like Fuel injection replacing dual side draft carburetors, and later on high output Turbocharged versions.

Can a Bentley go really fast? This one can!
7) 1995 Bentley Azure R model was the first sporty convertible Bentley to come out of the Rolls Royce marriage, and this model is still a very handsome vehicle to this day. It was powerful enough with a 400 horsepower 6.75 Liter inter-cooled turbocharged V8 engine. The true genius of this model was that it was a four passenger convertible! This is easily one of the most attractive Bentley cars that came out of the Rolls Royce era. Imagine going zero to sixty in about six seconds in a car that weighs over 5700 pounds with the top down! Now I think that would be a fun car to drive!

Volkswagen kicks things up a notch for Bentley.
In 1998 the Bentley line was sold off to Volkswagen, and they began pouring money into retooling the once formidable Bentley line up. Bentley has always been a unique brand of automobile, but it has enjoyed a rebirth under the VW umbrella which is giving the brand a rejuvenating kick in the rear quarter that nothing else has done before.

The most amazing Bentley model that I have ever seen has to be the Continental GT.
8) The first major breakthrough car from the Volkswagen era has to be the 2003 Bentley Continental GT. This model has a six liter twin turbocharged W12 engine, and was clearly at the front of the line in the coming wave of luxury super-cars. With elegant good looks and way more power than is actually required, this model is what other manufacturers wish they had designed. The one design feature I love the most has to be the fastback body styling, with all around sleek sexy lines. This thing looks like it is going twice the speed limit while sitting still.

The measure of a Supercar.
9) What really is a Super-car? The Bentley Continental Supersports!
the final choice of my top ten Bentley models is easily one of the top three coolest cars on the road today. The 2009 Bentley Continental Supersports is the culmination of extreme engineering, with awesome brake horsepower and torque in a luxury car model that I believe the world had never seen before in a production car. This model uses the potent W12 engine, but it runs on gasoline or E85 "bio-fuel" It is claimed to be the fastest and most powerful production Bentley ever built.

Does a Bentley really fly? This one does!
10) And finally I believe that the 2009 four door 602 brake horsepower Flying Spur Bentley has all the attributes of a world class "Supercar" with the refined manners of a spacious luxury sedan. This model is hand built and has quickly become a highly sought after model. I am sure that the Bentley line has more surprises to offer in future models.

For a more in depth history of these amazing cars, please visit the Bentley Motors Website, and click the "Distinguished Heritage" tab.

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Sources:
www.bentleymotors.com