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The Bentley
3.5 Litre was presented to the public in September 1933. The Bentley 3.5
Litre was the first new Bentley model since Rolls Royce took over the
company in 1931. These Bentley models are also known as "Derby
Bentley's" this because they were built in the Rolls Royce factory
located in Derby, England.
The Bentley 3.5 Litre was the result of the Rolls Royce project
"Peregrine" which was aimed at developing an automobile on a
shorter chassis. The car was projected below the Rolls Royce 20/25 en
the Rolls Royce Phantom. The Bentley 3.5 Litre was going to be a
competitor for the Alvis Speed 20 and the
Lagonda M45.
The Bentley
3.5 Litre was available from the factory as rolling chassis or with
several standard bodywork variant. The factory bodywork models were made
by Park Ward and the model program consisted of a saloon, a streamline
saloon and a drop head coupe.
The rolling chassis which left the factory were "dressed" by
other well known coachwork builders like Van den Plas, H.J. Mulliner,
Trupp & Maberly, James Young, H.R. Owen, Gurney Nutting, William
Arnold, Kellner (Paris) and the Swiss coachwork builder Graber.
The steel chassis was produced using nickel steel. The chassis was
designed with a "double-dropped" layout to gain vertical space
for the axles and to keep the cars profile low. The chassis was
constructed with six cross members and no diagonal cross bracing. The
strong chassis was very light in comparison to the chassis built by the
contemporary competitors.
The Bentley 3.5 Litre six cylinder in-line engine was a further
development of the Rolls Royce 20/25 engine. The 3.5 Litre however was
far more powerful... The engine was given a larger cylinder capacity,
higher compression, a sharper (sporty) camshaft profile and two S.U.
carburettors.
Because of
the high power potential of the new 3.5 Litre engine some standard high
quality Rolls Royce parts were considered inferior by the engineers.
They stated that the critical parts had to be of ultimate quality for
use in this engine...
Building a sportive Bentley with a lower price tag than a Rolls Royce
became more and more an impossible goal to aim for.
Engineer in charge of the project, Mr. Hives, wrote in a memo addressed
to the staff of the company; "Our recommendation is that we should
make the car as good as we know how and then charge accordingly".
No need to say more...
Technical
data
Six cylinder
engine with overhead valves
and a crankshaft with seven bearings
Cylinder capacity: 3669 cc.
Carburettors: 2 x S.U., 1 3/8 inch
Capacity: 114 bhp. at 4500 tpm.
Top-speed: 147 km/h. - 92 mph.
Acceleration: 0-96 km/h. (0-60 miles in 20.4 seconds
Gearbox: Four speed manual, 3th. and 4th. gear
synchronised.
Petrol tank: 73 liter
Weight (chassis): approximately 1500 kg.
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