Originally posted by WPRESTO 1930 Bentley Speed Six, sort of an earlier day version of the car above.. Image re-posted from some other thread years ago. The auction price of this car might exceed the new price of the Bugatti above (one sold for about 2.4 million USD, but value depends on a variety of details)
In 1955, a Texas owner of a Bentley Speed Six was driving to a show in Vancouver BC, as people would actually do with their valuable antiques in those days, and I was hitchhiking. He was bored and picked up an impressionable barely 15 year old a few miles North of the US border. So there I am, sitting behind the smaller windscreen used by the mechanic when racing, when an unknowledgeable, stupid owner of a new MG thought he would play games with the big old, slow (?) antique. You know the type, pass, slow down force pass, repeat ad nauseum to show how good a driver he is and how he is driving such a hot car. Owner of Bentley felt frisky, and asked if there was a two lane stretch soon. I pointed out a hill on old highway 99 a few miles ahead. Owner yelled (it was noisy in the old girl) in my ear and said I was to tell him when his exhaust pipe was exactly beside the idiot's left ear and made a pass at the bottom of the hill. I tapped his shoulder as instructed, and he sped up a bit. MG followed. About the time we hit the top speed of the MG Owner of Bentley shifted into top gear and floored it with supercharger screaming leaving MG in the dust, owner's jaw in his slippers. We stopped later for a drink and snack and owner let me in on the secret. He was driving one of the 1928 Le Mans spares and informed me it would do some ridiculously fast 3 digit speeds. Since that day I have lusted over driving one for even a few blocks.