4256cc 6 Cylinder Inline
4 speed 3 Synchro Manual
Front Engined Rear Wheel Drive
Hydro-mechanical Drum Brakes
132 bhp
Exterior Black over Brown Interior Black
Largely based on the last pre-war Mark V Bentley, of which only 17 cars were built before the war broke out, the Mark VI updated the standard “Derby” 4 ¼ litre Bentley with independent front suspension, coupled with a redesigned F head engine. The somewhat backwards step of fitting an F head engine in place of the previous overhead valve engine is that the F head allowed larger valves to be fit than what the diameter of the bore would allow on an overhead valve engine. Braking is provided with front hydraulic brakes linked to a mechanical rear braking system, that featuresa transmission-driven mechanical servo licensed by Rolls Royce from Hispano-Suiza. This system allows the brakes to perform far above what was typical for similarly heavy cars at the time. With the end of the war, Rolls Royce, which owned Bentley at thetime, decided that they needed to move some of the production for the Mark VI Bentley in-house, using the talent that Rolls Royce acquired when they bought the coach builder Park Ward. Although they were building some in house, some Bentley Mark VI cars were still sold as a bare chassis to be finished by a bespoke coachbuilder for the customer. No Rolls Royce cars
were built in-house until the Rolls Royce badged Silver Dawn was introduced as a largely badge engineered variant of the Bentley Mark VI Standard Steel design. My example is a largely original car and was sold new in London in 1949 and sold to its second owner in 1952. it was this owner who brought the car to the United States in the 1950s and proceeded to keep the car in excellent condition until the early 2000s, when it was sold again. That owner moved the car to Oregon and determined he wasn’t driving it enough, so decided to donate the car to the Eugene YMCA. It was when the YMCA sent the car to the Sports Car Shop in Eugene to determine what condition it was in and what it was worth that I found out about it. After looking it over and test driving it, I talked with the YMCA and agreed to purchase the car as-is for a fair market price. I’ve since fixed a few electrical problems on the car, repaired the heater and trafficators and fully serviced the car allowing it to become another very good, reliable high speed tourer. The Mark VI is a significant improvement in many ways over the pre-war “Derby” Bentleys, with better handling, suspension, and steering, making it an ideal touring car.
