For fans of racing history, one of the true grails of the automotive world just sold for nearly $4 million: A Bentley 3 Litre which raced in, and almost won, the first Le Mans 24 Hours race back in 1923, marking the first British car and the first Bentley to participate in the race, which is still the most prestigious yearly race on the calendar.
The car, called Chassis 141, was what helped found the notorious Bentley Boys, so named for their hard-living, hard-racing lifestyle, who would follow up the first race, in which they ultimately placed 4th, by winning the next race, and then every race from 1927 to 1930, dominating the early years of the gruelling full-day vehicular marathon.
If this isn’t painting the picture on why this car is so significant to motoring history, allow us to add some more facts: Without the Chassis 141, Bentley would have perhaps never found its initial success.
Yep, this car actually helped launch the brand. After the successful race in 1923, followed by the winning year in 1924, Bentley started selling like hotcakes, selling a then-astounding 700 vehicles in those two years.
Before this, in fact, the brand wasn’t even really a thing. The first only was delivered in 1921, so desperately needed a huge win on a global scale to capture attention, and that’s exactly what the Chassis 141 did.
The story of the Chassis 141 at Le Mans 24
How it was developed of course, is as crazy a story as you can imagine. Back in 1923, brand dealer, racing driver and adventurer John Duff had used the car to set 38 international records at the then-most gruelling race, the Double 12 Hour Record at Brooklands, where racing a full 24h was banned so that the locals could get some sleep, but the car still covered an astounding 2,082 miles at 86.79 miles per hour.
The success convinced him to go back to founder W.O. Bentley and ask him to prepare the car for a new race happening in Le Mans that would go for 24 hours straight.
W.O. Bentley, of course, thought he was insane, and that it couldn’t be done, but he still agreed to help him, offering his factory test driver Frank Clement to co-drive with him.
The car managed to set a lap record of 66.69mph with only rear brakes, but they didn’t win due to running out of fuel after stones and punctured the tank, leading them to finish at a joint 4th place.
Who were the Bentley Boys?
The duo of Duff and Clement were the founding members of the soon-to-be-dominant Bentley Boys, joined by Glen Kidston, who won the 1930 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Bentley, as well as Tim Birkin, Dr Dudley Benjafield or one-time Bentley Chairman Woolf Barnato.
It was actually the Kidston family that held on to the car and brokered the sale, with Glen’s nephew Simon in charge.
“This week the most famous motor race in the world celebrates its 100th birthday and its pioneering early competitors remain as intriguing as ever. This isn’t just an old car, it’s a turning point in motor racing history and a cornerstone of the brand’s legend. And personally, having inherited a family passion for cars which was accelerated by my ‘Bentley Boy’ uncle, helping to bring this one home feels really satisfying. It won’t be leading a quiet life: it’ll be lining up on the grid of the Le Mans 100th anniversary race for vintage cars next month. I hope its original drivers will be looking down and smiling,” Kidston says.
What happened to the car after the race?
The car’s ended up having a lot of twist and turns over the last century, first being used a tow vehicle, then it became a shooting brake for a local undertaker after its bodywork was altered.
In the 1940s, a new owner used it to bring her St. Bernards to dog shows.
After that, the car was forgotten in the back of a barn, appearing again in the public eye in the 1980s when the owner of the Donington Car Museum, a man named Tom Wheatcroft, got a call from a then 97 year old woman who offered him the two cars she had left in the old barn, an old Bentley and a Voisin, she said.
No one seemed to know what car exactly it was that she had, and it sat there until a motoring journalist saw what it was: the first Bentley to race in the first-ever Le Mans 24 race.
The car was then traded to Australian collector Peter Briggs, whose Brabham Formula 1 car was then loaned to the museum. He agreed to give that car to the museum, and the Bentley was shipped off to him in Australia, where it was restored and became the main attraction of his own museum in Perth. Now, it returns to the UK, though it’s unknown if it will ever be on public display.
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