MY FEEDLY

A Rare Bentley 4¼ Liter Vanden Plas Pillarless Saloon

The Bentley 4¼ Litre is an important car from early in the company’s history, interestingly it was in a racing version of a Bentley 4¼ Litre that Edward “Eddie” Hall would drive to become the first person in history to race the entire 24 Hours of Le Mans single-handed in 1950.

The Bentley 4¼ Liter

Bentley released the 4¼ Litre as a replacement for the popular 3½ Litre in 1936, the engines were largely identical however the 4¼ Litre was bored out to give it a total swept capacity of 4,257cc, which of course gave it more power than its predecessor.

These two models were the first to be built by Bentley after it was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1931, cars from after the acquisition are called “Derby Bentleys” by enthusiasts, as opposed to the “Cricklewood Bentleys” from the earlier time period.

The new production Bentleys were generally more luxurious than their forebears which often had sporting intentions, this disappointed some however company founder W.O. Bentley was reported as saying that he would “rather own this Bentley than any other car produced under that name.”

Much like their contemporary automakers from the period, Bentley sold the 3½ Litre and subsequent 4¼ Litre models as powered rolling chassis. The body would then be built to the customer’s specifications by their preferred coachbuilders – this was a golden age for the coachbuilding industry with some clients event ordering two bodies, a convertible for summer and hardtop for winter.

Above Image: The interior of the car is beautifully appointed, with aged leather upholstery and walnut wood trim as far as the eye can see.

This Bentley model family made two appearances in James Bond films, a 3½ Litre was shown as James Bond’s personal car in From Russia with Love, and many years later a 4¼ Litre was his car in Never Say Never Again.

A slew of major celebrities owned Bentley 3½ and 4¼ Liters including Sir Malcolm Campbell, Raymond Mays, Woolf Barnato, Prince Bira, George Eyston, and Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. A wide range of bodies could be ordered for the cars from the finest coachbuilders of the time including Figoni et Falaschi, James Young, Vanden Plas, Saoutchik, Rippon Bros, and Thrupp & Maberly.

Over the course of the 1933 to 1939 production run over 2,400 examples were built, some were still being bodied into the 1940s in part due to delays caused by the onset of the Second World War. These sales figures were remarkable for the era, given the fact that the world was in the grip of the Great Depression, and there can be little doubt that the 3½ and 4¼ Liter models helped keep Bentley afloat.

The Bentley 4¼ Liter Pillarless Saloon Shown Here

The vehicle you see here is a Bentley 4¼ Liter pillarless saloon that was bodied by highly regarded coachbuilders Vanden Plas. The car is chassis number B127JY, it was ordered from the renowned London dealer Jack Barclay and it was built with Lucas P100 headlamps, a single sidemounted spare, built-in rear number plate, full-length bumpers, and five Ace wheel discs.

The body was built with a sliding “sunshine” roof, separate adjustable front seats, folding center and side armrests to the rear seat, a radio, map pockets, electric courtesy lights, and an opening windshield.

Once complete the Bentley was delivered to cinema magnate and enthusiast C.J. Donada, who also owned a number of other Bentley and Rolls-Royce automobiles, as well as a Gispy Moth biplane. Over the years the car was owned by a number of other enthusiasts and it’s now being offered for sale by RM Sotheby’s with a price guide of CHF 110,000 to CHF 150,000, which is approximately $120,000 to $163,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Bently or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The post A Rare Bentley 4¼ Liter Vanden Plas Pillarless Saloon appeared first on Silodrome.

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The Miami Edition Land Rover By Falcon Design Germany

This is one of the most eye-catching Series 3 Land Rovers we’ve ever seen, despite its name and looks it wasn’t built in Florida but over in Germany by the talented team at Falcon Design.

If the name Falcon Design sounds familiar it might be because we wrote about them here not too long ago, the company was founded five years ago and they’ve quickly made a name for themselves restoring Land Rover Series and Defender models with their own unique twist.

The company does full body-off restorations and unlike many of their contemporaries they carefully document each stage with photographs, offering interesting insight into what goes into each build.

Although no two Falcon Land Rovers are the same they all make use of some similar processes, every restoration sees the body fully disassembled, the bulkhead is removed from the chassis and the chassis is stripped back to its bare structure.

After this the chassis is repaired if needed before being galvanized – this makes it far less likely to rust and provides the new Land Rover a solid foundation. The other major steel part of both Defenders and Series Land Rovers is the bulkhead, most of the rest of the body is made from aluminum alloy which is impervious to rust. With this in mind the bulkhead is also galvanized before being installed back onto the chassis.

The body panels on the Land Rover were originally made from aluminum alloy as steel was hard to come by in the years immediately after WWII. The first Land Rovers in the late 1940s therefore made use of alloy for their bodies and the Series I, II, IIA, and III Land Rovers all followed suit – long after steel became available again.

Above Image: The hand-painted chassis is certainly eye-catching, much of it still visible when the body is on.

The Series III you see here is a 1974 model, it originally came from the factory with a 4-speed manual transmission, high and low range, and of course, a transfer case allowing either two or four-wheel drive operation.

Power is supplied by a 2.25 litre petrol inline-4 cylinder engine, though not powerful by any measure these Land Rover engines have proven to be incredibly robust over the decades, and they’re simple enough to be rebuilt by bush mechanics from the Serengeti to the Simpson Desert.

For the rebuild of this Land Rover the team at Falcon Design opted to go for an unusual Miami theme, the chassis was given a bold, hand-painted new look with motifs from the region. Falcon credits the idea of the chassis paintwork to Cool n’ Vintage, a fellow Land Rover restoration garage based in Portugal.

The finished vehicle makes use of bolt aqua accents throughout and the interior is trimmed with weatherproof marine leather – perfect for leaving the roof off all summer long.

If you’d like to see more of the builds from Falcon Design Germany you can click here to visit their website. They take orders for custom Land Rovers regularly and work closely with clients on the design and final specification.

Follow Falcon Design on Instagram – Facebook – LinkedIn

Images courtesy of Falcon Design Germany

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1 Of 6 Ever Made: The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III By James Young

This is the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III bodied by James Young, just six of these were built by the British coachbuilder and when they were new in the mid-1960s they were among the most luxurious two-door cars available for sale anywhere in the world.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

The Silver Cloud had been released in 1955 and sold until 1966 over three generations, the I, II, and III. As you would expect the final Mark III example was the most refined after almost a decade of incremental improvements had been made to the model.

The first Silver Clouds had been powered by a 155 hp 4.9 litre straight-six however this proved perhaps a little underpowered for the 2.3 ton car, a new Rolls-Royce 6.2 litre V8 engine would be fitted from 1959 onwards, greatly improving performance though slightly reducing fuel economy – though fuel economy wasn’t typically a high priority for those who bought cars of this nature.

The Silver Cloud III was released in 1963, it included a slew of improvements including uprated SU carburettors, a higher compression ratio (9.0:1), and a weight reduction of over 100 kilograms (220 lbs).

As a result of these changes this model was the fastest of the Silver Clouds, Rolls-Royce famously never liked to list horsepower figures for their cars, deeming it crass, however they did note that the Silver Cloud III was 7% more powerful than the preceding model.

Above Image: The beautiful lines of many of the bodies built by James Young have resulted in them being highly sought after by enthusiasts.

When the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow arrived in 1965 to replace the Silver Cloud it marked the end of the era of body-on-chassis cars from the British automaker – the Silver Shadow would be the first Rolls-Royce to use unitary construction. This would mark the end of the road for coachbuilt Rolls-Royces.

James Young – British Coachbuilders

James Young would become one of the most lauded of the 20th century British coachbuilders, the company was founded in 1863 when Mr James Young bought J. K. Hunter’s carriage-building business – 20 or so years before the invention of the automobile.

When the automobile did appear many carriage builders would switch to building car bodies, made relatively straightforward by the body-on-chassis design that was commonplace at the time. Over the course of the company’s history, James Young would build armored cars for the war effort during WWI and aircraft components during WWII – suffering two bombings during the war that destroyed all of the firm’s paper records.

The 1960s would mark the end of James Young’s long history, however the company went out with a bang, building some of the most beautiful and elegant Rolls-Royces of the era – like the example shown here.

Above Image: This is the 6.2 litre V8 Rolls-Royce engine that provided ample torque, pushing the car on to a stop speed of over 100 mph.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Shown Here

James Young would build just six of these, known as the “SCV150” model the body was characterized by its elegant lines and opulent interior. This was a Rolls-Royce for a person who wanted to drive it themselves, not just to sit in the back while a driver does all the work up front.

This car was ordered new by Melville Thompson, Esq., of The Stone House in Portavoe, Donaghadee, in County Down, Northern Ireland who kept the car into the late 1970s. He specified that the car be finished in Brewster Green with beige hides, inside it has a radio with an electric aerial, folding tables to the rear of the front seats, an automatic transmission, with power steering and power windows.

Each of these bodies is said to have taken James Young craftsmen over 2,632 hours to complete. The car has passed through a limited number of hands in the years since it was first delivered and it’s now being offered for sale out of a prominent collection in Liechtenstein.

This Silver Cloud is due to roll across the auction block on the 19th of June with a price guide of CHF 175,000 to CHF 260,000, which is approximately $191,000 to $284,000 USD. If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The post 1 Of 6 Ever Made: The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III By James Young appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/rolls-royce-silver-cloud-james-young/
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Ferrari 250 GTO Plain Body – The $70 Million Dollar Monster From Maranello

These remarkable images showcase the most expensive car in the world as no one has ever seen it before – with a plain white body designed to show off the Italian car’s much lauded design.

When it was first conceived by Italian engineer Giotto Bizzarrini the 250 GTO was given the nickname “Il Mostro” – Italian for “The Monster.”

It seems a strange pseudonym for a car that many of us consider beautiful, but back when the second prototype was in development it had a rough, unfinished alloy body showing welds and tooling marks. The engineers called it Il Mostro and the press called it “The Anteater” due to its long, low nose developed for high speed aerodynamics.

Despite its early Ugly Duckling phase the 250 GTO would help further fill the Ferrari trophy room with wins in the over 2000cc class of the FIA’s International Championship for GT Manufacturers in 1962, 1963, and 1964.

Today the Ferrari 250 GTO is recognized as the single most valuable car in history, back in June of 2018 a 1963 250 GTO (chassis #4153GT) was sold in a private transaction for a reported $70 million USD. A number unlikely to be rivaled by any other car.

This series is called “Plain Bodies,” it’s part of an ongoing project from INK, a London-based creative studio that specializes in creating digital content across film, print, and interactive platforms. They’ve created a minutely detailed 250 GTO with a plain white body as it more clearly shows the shape of the car – with no colors or race livery getting in the way.

The team at INK are offering these three unique angles as prints on high quality art paper. You can choose from two sizes – 16.5 x 23.4 inches or 23.4 x 33.1 inches, and they cost $73.57 or $220.72 USD respectively. While you’re visiting their store be sure to check out the other cars in the Plain Bodies series, including the Audi S1 E2, the Ferrari 330 P4, the Porsche 911, the Jaguar D-Type, and many others.

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