Bentley 8-Litre was the last car designed and released under the instructions of the creator of the brand of Walter Owen Bentley.
This model was the largest in the history of the brand and generally the most grandiose British machine of that time. Is it a joke: its wheelbase reached almost four meters, and its engine was the most powerful among all the engines produced in Britain.
For the first time, Bentley 8-Litre was shown to the public at the Auto Show in London in 1930. The model exceeded the famous Rolls-Royce Phantom in high-speed and dynamic qualities and in December of the same year a speed record was set on it. The car accelerated to 163 km/h, which was at that time almost fantastic.
So that an incredibly heavy luxurious car can, like other brand models, develop a speed above 160 km/h, it was equipped with a in -line six -cylinder power unit with a volume of 8 liters with four valves for each cylinder. But despite this, Bentley 8-Litre never took part in races. This car was a favorite object of exchange speculators, celebrities and other elite. A total of 100 such cars were produced. Only one chassis for him cost 1850 English pounds.
Crisis against Bentley 8-Litre
Bentley 8-Litre remained the most powerful car in the history of Bentley 22. Experts called this model the most successful of all cars ever produced by the British auto industry. The machine perfectly combined the Bentley brand high -speed opportunities with the practicality and ease of movement along the city streets. The 8-Litre design provided for the presence of a convenient folding top, four doors and the same windows.
Such a significant achievement of Bentley designers was overshadowed by the crisis of the early 1930s. The company's position and the unsuccessful performance of a car with a rotary supercharger in high -speed competitions at Brooklands, held at that time were aggravated. The appearance of the Bentley 8-liter, with excellent speed and comfort characteristics, but at an extremely high cost at that time, was met with disapproval, because the population could no longer afford to buy such a luxury car. Then Bentley lost even regular customers. All this led to the fact that in 1931 the company bought Rolls-Royce, as a result of which Bentley lost independence, and its founder Walter Bentley had to be content with a modest position in his former corporation.