The Bentley 8 Litre and its contemporaries were generally sold as chassis, to which one of many coach-built bodies could be fitted, invariably having a significant bearing on the car's maximum speed. We've chosen this model because, according to leading marque authority Dr Clare Hay in Bentley – The Vintage Years, any 8 Litre could achieve a genuine 104mph, even when specified with the bluffest, heaviest saloon body. Moreover, WO Bentley achieved not only the first 100mph lap of Brooklands by a closed car in a two-door 8 Litre, but also 107.3mph at Montlhéry with Herbert Kensington-Moir.
While it's true that the odd rival with light and rakish metalwork was tested at fractionally higher speeds during this decade, it's also true that 8 Litre rolling chassis – its 200bhp output trouncing most - would have left the works of coachbuilders such as Mulliner and Vanden Plas with performance-enhancing bodywork, too.
Bentley's claim for it being the world's fastest production chassis at the 8 Litre's Earls Court debut in 1930 is the final rationale, which quashes all variables. And it's the baseline' saloon that we have with us today, the second of 100 8 Litres built, The Autocar test car and originally the property of WO himself, now faithfully restored and Bentley-owned. You have to wonder if, when he pushed the starter button for the first time, WO realised how close to the financial precipice his firm actually was.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
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