How do I build a 1930 Bentley Speed Six.

[Orso]

I would like to convert the Heller Bentley kit  in to a Speed Six as I find the Blower rather uninteresting. It iis just as boring as the Titanic. Both have got the famous of not complete their voyage,

So what is needed to build the winning 1930 Speed Six?

[Vesa Jussila]

@Orso very good question. I have been thinking exactly same conversion. Really need to start research of topic,

[Orso]

I started once but didn't reach further than this:

 

1926 Bentley Speed 6 data
Wheelbase    3353mm     132in
Length    4420mm     174in     
Width    1740mm     68.5in

Bentley Speed Six Works Team Car
Wheelbase    3,353 mm 132 in or 11 ft

Factory racing cars
The racing version of the Speed Six had a wheelbase of 11 feet (132 in; 3,353 mm)

UU5872 #9 1930 Blower
length    4369 mm / 172.0 in
width    1740 mm / 68.5 in
wheelbase    3302 mm / 130.0 in or 10'10"
front track    1384 mm / 54.5 in
rear track    1384 mm / 54.5 in

[Peter2]

I don't know much about Bentleys, so I searched on Google using terms such as "Bentley Speed 6 model conversion"; among the results that came up was this about tuning the Bentley from a 1937 motor magazine, 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/september-1937/11/tuning-the-bentley.

Another site has a couple of Bentley photos: https://shop.memorylane.co.uk/galleries/bentley.

Another reference that appeared was for a "Classic Car Africa" May 2017 pdf download which includes an article, with photos on pages 36 to 42 about Bentleys at Le Mans in the 1920s and 1930s.

These are just the tip of the research iceberg. Hope this helps.

An issue of "Airfix Magazine Annual for Modellers" from the 1970s (I can't remember which year) contained a detailed build of their 1/12th supercharged Bentley. You might get this hardback book online or in a larger public library.

No mention yet on Google of someone else building a model of the Speed Six.

So you may be one of the first.

Also, the Internet tells me that Bentley announced in 2022 that they will be building 12 actual full-sized recreations of the Speed Six, by using two reference models (surviving cars), in addition to original blueprints and other documents.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/bentley-speed-six-continuation-vintage-debut/says: "Continuation models are a recent and neat phenomenon in the auto industry, where automakers will painstakingly recreate decades-old models using a blend of new and old technology for a very small number of lucky buyers. The latest model to join the what's-old-is-new-again zeitgeist is Bentley's revered pre-war race car, the Speed Six."

So one idea might be to buy one of these recreations, then scale down the measurements for your own planned conversion from the Blower.

Those recreations are expected to only cost $1.8 million each.

[Noel Smith]

Orso.  Have a look for the Wills Finecast white metal kit in 1/24th scale. Not sure if it is a Speed Six but have an idea that it is an unblown  version of a Bentley of that vintage.

Agree that the Blower Bentley has been done to death like the Titanic in plastic kits over the years. Disagree that it is a boring car.

Before you start your Speed Six check the wheelbase of the kit. A number of the plastic kits are of a short wheelbase model. The big Airfix Bentley in 1/12th scale is of a short wheelbase version.

 

Peter 2.   I do not recollect any Airfix Special book devoted to the 1/12th scale Blower Bentley from the 70's. Patrick Stephens at Bar Hill Cambridge were the publishers of the original Airfix Magazine at the time and also published those Airfix Special books. They did 3 on their classic ships, Mayflower, Cutty Sark and Victory, and also some books about super detailing some of their big 1/24th scale Aircraft kits at the time. If they had done a Bentley book I would certainly have obtained one at the time.

The Airfix Annual that you mentioned. You may have been vaguely recollecting a photo article of mine that got published on one of them when I got to take some pictures of a long wheelbase Blower that featured in that special. It was not a build article as such that I can remember.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Noel Smith

[Orso]

Never heard of the Wills company. Did a search and found that they did a 1928 4,5 l

[Noel Smith]

The Wills Finecast company were taken over by South Eastern Finecast and I believe have since been acquired by Squires at Bognor Regis, Sussex, England.

Wills kits have been around for a very long time since the Sixties I believe. They are more into railway stuff than cars however.

[cmatthewbacon]

I’m not sure how easy it is to buy kits from Squires. They didn’t have any at SMW, and when I asked they said it was taking longer than expected to get the range ready to begin sales. What stock they took on of the Finecast (as opposed to Autokits originated) kits I don’t know. They did say that prepping the moulds to cast new stock was proving challenging. I have a 1928 4.5 litre kit, and it certainly has a long body and very different proportions from the 1930 blower.

best,

M.

[Vesa Jussila]

@cmatthewbacon are we talking this company: http://www.squirestools.com/contact-us.htm

[cmatthewbacon]

33 minutes ago, Vesa Jussila said:

@cmatthewbacon are we talking this company: http://www.squirestools.com/contact-us.htm

Yes @Vesa Jussila, that’s the folks.

best,

M.

[Vesa Jussila]

I will put a question to them, if there are any possibilities to get kit. Some kind of starting point would help this project. 

[Dancona]

 

Hi Orso

The Wills model is a nice little kit, though the radiator is a bit short, it should go down further and have a cut out around the starting handle spigot. It is a standard four and a half chassis, (as opposed to the Le Mans blower cars which were on a shortened chassis), which incidentally is the same as the long chassis three litre, there was a lot of commonality between the four cylinder cars.

The six cylinder cars are a completely different animal, I doubt that anything more than some axles and bits and bobs would be suitable from the Airfix kit, even the radiator shape is slightly different from the four and a half, in actual fact, chronologically  the six and a half was developed straight after the three litre, the four and a half was a much later attempt to get more grunt out of the three litre by boring it out a tad.

 

Cheers

 

David