1949 Bentley MkVI

Description

From a deceased estate; well-maintained with a large history file; previous owner for 25 years; nice transferable number plate

Imposing enough to be chauffeured in, yet handy enough to be owner-driven when the need was pressing or the mood was right, the MkVI was the pinnacle of boardroom ambition in ‘50s Britain. At £4,500 it was three times the price of Britain’s only other 100mph luxury saloon, the Jaguar MkVII, and although it might not have been three times the car, its sheer quality was beyond dispute and there was a three-year waiting list to get one.

It would therefore have been a special day indeed for Mr Parsons, owner of the Premier Screw Company in Leicester, when he finally got behind the wheel of his brand new MkVI in February 1949, the Bentley Motors Ltd delivery note still nestling in the history file. Finished in Dual Grey with a light blue hide interior, FRY 926 must have proved its worth many times over in the years that followed and in fact the car has outlived the Premier Screw business which got swallowed up by the GKN empire in 1966.

Little is known of FRY’s subsequent history but by 1978 it was with a Mr Andrews of Sevenoaks who had the brightwork rechromed and areas of the bodywork restored in 1992 when the odometer was showing some 26,500 miles. The previous owner acquired the car from Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialists Colbrook of Stilton, Peterborough, in January 1996 for the sum of £10,000.

A long-standing member of the Bentley Driver's Club (which he had joined in 1947), he bought the MkVI to celebrate his and his wife's 70th birthdays. Sharing garage space with a 1923 Bentley 3-Litre which he had owned for the preceding 45 years or more, FRY had the advantage of being snug and weatherproof and over the next 15 years it provided sterling service on numerous BDC events, including several Continental tours, covering some 32,000 miles. For the next 10 years it was very little used.

A good file of invoices attest to regular upkeep including a major bout of expenditure in 2007/2008 (at 52,500 miles) when the engine was completely stripped and rebuilt with a reground crankshaft, new main bearing shells plus much else besides, the machining being done by Belcher Engineering of Diss and the assembly by the rather splendidly named Foppe G d’Hane of Woodbridge. [Other undated invoices show that the engine had previously received a new set of pistons plus much other work but the writing is very hard to read].

The brakes and suspension were also overhauled at around the same time by Harvey Wash Ltd of Woodbridge and the bodywork (which had previously been restored in 1998 including a bare metal repaint) was also smartened up and the cavities waxoil injected by VW Anticks of Woodbridge. The radiator was recored in 2009.

When the previous owner passed away in 2021, the car was driven some 200 miles to Brightwells by his son who reported that it drove beautifully, the only fault he noted being the fuel gauge which needed a good thump from underneath to unstick the needle from empty.

The current owner acquired the car in our June 2021 auction and has only covered around 200 miles in it since, the odometer now showing 58,881 miles. Sadly, he too has now passed away so it is up for sale again.  

Starting promptly and running well as we have moved it around on site, it is supplied with a large history file, an original owner’s handbook and all its large and small tools. It also retains its original, eye-catching Leicester-issue number plate, FRY 926, which is transferable and no doubt has a value of its own.

For more information contact James on 07970 309907 or email james.dennison@brightwells.com