Third Bentley Speed Six Continuation Series presented to its owner

Bentley has delivered its third Speed Six Continuation Series car to a customer in the UK.

The owner is a longtime admirer of the marque and  owns a Continental GT, Continental GT3R, Continental Supersports and a First Edition Bentayga. Pride of place, however, goes to his Continuation Series “Blower” 4½ Litre Supercharged, which is the perfect complement to his new Speed Six.

His passion for pre-war Bentley racing cars was sparked after his uncle gave him a “Models of Yesteryear” scale model Blower Bentley as a child. Not only has he kept the cherished scale model “Blower” to this day, but it also provided the visual inspiration for his two Bentley Continuation Series cars.    

The Continuation Series Speed Six and the Continuation Series Blower are the third of 12 in their series, and the Speed Six also carries the racing number 3. The number has fond associations for the owner, who apparently played rugby to semi-pro standard as a tighthead prop, wearing the number 3 jersey. 

Both cars are painted in a custom shade of green, designed to be a midpoint between the light green of the owner’s scale model and traditional British Racing Green. The colour, named “Embelo Green”, incorporates the initials of the owner’s three daughters. The Speed Six’s interior is upholstered in red, similar to the owner's scale model, but in a more subdued shade.

The Speed Six has been equipped with two exhaust systems: one unsilenced to match the original specification and another with a silencer to comply with noise restrictions on certain tracks. The silencer was developed specifically for the Speed Six Continuation Series by Bentley Mulliner’s engineering team. Additional features include a white patch on the nearside front fender for visibility during pit stops and a hand-painted Union Flag on the driver’s side.

The Speed Six is notable in Bentley's history as its most successful racing model. Built with manufacturing techniques from the late 1920s, it is the second pre-war Continuation Series created by Mulliner, the British carmaker's custom and coachbuilding division.

The first model in this line was the Blower Continuation Series, based on Bentley’s 1929 4½l supercharged Team Car #2. It was assembled using original blueprints and modern laser-scanned data.

The Blower and Speed Six represented two approaches to Bentley’s competition with Mercedes-Benz at the 1930 Le Mans 24-hour race, with the Blower known for speed but less reliability, while the Speed Six offered more dependable performance.