THE SILENT SPORTS CAR
The 4¼ litre model is one of the first so-called “silent” sporting saloons and coupés built by Bentley after the take-over by Rolls-Royce in 1931. It was a pivotal model for Bentley, which had been financially vulnerable ever since the company was founded in 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley, leading to the first production Bentleys only going on sale in late 1921.
Those first Bentleys were out-and-out performance cars, appealing to a clientele with serious money and a yen for high-speed adventure. Woolf Barnato, son of the famous British Randlord mining magnate Barney Barnato, had inherited his late father’s fortune at a very young age, and spent a major portion of it financing the ailing Bentley company in the late 1920s.
Barnato’s cash injections helped Bentley become hugely successful in motor racing, winning the famous Le Mans 24-Hour for four successive years between 1927 and 1930. But the Great Depression following the Wall Street stock market collapse of 1929 led to Bentley going into receivership in 1931, and Rolls-Royce stepped in to buy the company.
The so-called “silent” Bentleys were first introduced in 1933, Rolls-Royce having based the new models on the mechanicals of the Rolls-Royce 20/25. The first of this series was known as the 3½ Litre model. The engine had a higher compression ratio than the Rolls motor, as well as twin S.U. carburettors and a sportier camshaft profile. Power was said to be 82 kW, and with a four-speed gearbox, top speed was between 140 and 145 km/h. The so-called 3½ engine had a capacity of 3,7-litres, but from March 1936 the 4¼ litre model was introduced, a bigger bore allowing a displacement of 4 257 cc.
Initially, hard-core Bentley enthusiasts were a bit derisive of this new “softer” model, but W.O. Bentley himself (who stayed on at Bentley for a few years after the Rolls takeover) reckoned it was possibly the best Bentley produced up until that time.
There were lots of people that agreed with W.O. Bentley and notable luminaries that owned these cars included Sir Malcolm Campbell, famed British World Land Speed record-holder, who bought a 4¼ Litre model, featuring bodywork by Park Ward, of London. In those days all Bentleys and Rolls-Royces were delivered to customers as a running chassis, with all the vital mechanical bits in place, including the famous radiator and the front bulkhead that separates the engine from the passenger compartment. It was then up to the owner to choose the bodywork from a number of coachbuilders accredited to doing reputable work that would meet the high standards demanded by such expensive cars.
Park Ward was actually the most popular of these coachbuilders, and of all the Bentley 3½ Litre and 4¼ Litre models built between 1933 and 1939, it is estimated that half of them featured Park Ward bodywork. Other famous British coachbuilders which bodied these Bentleys included Mulliner, Hooper, Gurney Nutting, Vanden Plas and James Young. Famous European coachbuilders that also clothed Bentleys included Figoni et Falaschi and Kellner of Paris.
While the “Silent Sports Car” name stuck to these excellent cars, the Bentleys from this period were also known as the “Derby Bentleys” because these were the first to be built at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, whereas the very first Bentleys, from 1921 to 1931, were known as Cricklewood Bentleys. Despite misgivings about whether the new cars under Rolls-Royce management would find acceptance, the Derby cars were extremely successful. A total of 2 411 of these magnificent machines were built, and of these, 1 234 were of the later 4¼ Litre models, introduced from March 1936 to keep pace with growing competition from rival European makes.
Pierre and Wilma Malherbe’s 1936 4¼ Litre example features four-door sports saloon coachwork, courtesy of Park Ward. There were a number of other body styles also built on the standard Bentley chassis, including two-door fixed-head coupes, convertibles and even some racing versions. As late as 1950 a Bentley 4¼ Litre competed at Le Mans!
Currently residing in the Southern Cape, the Malherbe car was ordered in England in late 1936 and delivered to first owner Jack Barclay on March 3, 1937. It is believed that this car was shipped to South Africa in the early 1980s, and bought by Wilma’s father, Teun Groothedde in Johannesburg. On Teun’s passing, Wilma inherited the Bentley, and it has been much enjoyed by her and Pierre since then. The family is very active in veteran and vintage tours organised by the Southern Cape Old Car Club and recently completed a tour of over 1 000 km, during which time Pierre said he came to appreciate the wonderful engineering of this 89-year-old car.
The engine idles with a lovely deep throb, and pulls all four of its gear ratios in seemingly effortless fashion. It is an overhead valve design with two valves per cylinder, and the cylinder head is a crossflow unit, which means the carburettors are located on the right side of the engine, with the exhaust manifold on the left.
The four-wheel brakes are mechanical, rather than hydraulic, and with servo assistance they work very effectively in hauling the 1 700 kg down from its cruising speed of between 80 km/h and 100 km/h. With the 4¼ Litre motor as fitted between 1936 and 1939, top speed was said to be in excess of 145 km/h, but Pierre says he has no desire to test this claim out today, in a car approaching its 90th year.
The steering, obviously lacking power-assistance, is on the heavy side, but the all-round leaf spring suspension copes very well with all manner of roads to be found in South Africa. Behind the large diameter black three-spoked steering wheel a beautiful burr walnut dashboard with classic English instrumentation, and way up ahead beyond the upright windscreen is the classic Bentley radiator, with the distinctive Bentley radiator mascot, a stylised “B” with flying wings trailing behind.
Just before the photo shoot, Pierre had removed the distinctive metal wheel covers from his car for a different, more vintage look, exposing the steel-spoked wheels. In chatting about this new look, the verdict was still out on whether the older spoked wheel appearance was preferable to the classic 1930s steel hubcap look. The consensus, after a bit of to-and-fro debate, was that both looks were “ultra-cool”.
As for the overriding 1936 Bentley experience, the sobriquet of “The Silent Sports Car” is indeed still fitting for this car which heralded a brave-new chapter in the Bentley legacy, under the auspices of Rolls-Royce. Today, Rolls-Royce is a brand owned by BMW, while Bentleys are built under Volkswagen Group management. Yet the modern Bentleys still enjoy the reverence that this first of the Derby Bentleys earned in the years leading up to World War II.
Story and pics by Stuart Johnston
