1947 Bentley Mark VI by Franay
The best place to find out information about Bentleys from 1946 to the early sixties is at www.kda132.com.
Apparently this 1947 Bentley Mark VI by Franay chassis B20BH is the 'the most valuable post-WWII Bentley motor car, and arguably the most valuable ever'.
That was written by the person selling the car. Nothing like a large comment to drive up the price.
The car is still magnificent though. Talk about spats!
In 1999 the car was for sale via www.ebentley.com for 2.5 Million US dollar.
The car sold at auction April 3, 2006 for $1,728,000.
But enough about price and fame. What really is cool is that the car has its own Franklin Mint collector-quality replica 1947 Franay Bentley model! Only one real car was made, so I like the fact that many kids are playing with a coachbuilt Bentley that there is only one of!
Here is a picture of the model.
You can purchase the car on Ebay here. The model that is.
Pictures (Ebentley)
Labels: Bentley, coachbuilt, derby
posted @ 10/27/2007 12:45:00 pm
2 Comments:
I know this car. Spent many a happy mile tucked into the rear seat (sideways). An ex-naval hero from WW11, Alec Clifford, who lived in Elstree in N. London, bought it in about '59. Alec had bought a knitwear company that supplied the top stores and drove all over checking wool supplies. He made only the best, handpicking every bale. He didn't really like the car, want it, but when it was offered to him he just had to take it. Got a good price, y'see! It still cost a lot, he barely scraped the cash together. But he grew to love the car, it was a fab car to drive, he could drive all day and not feel tired. But he was noticing how big it was - he refused to drive into London unless early in the morning with no traffic - that and the atrocious lack of rear and brake lights. Forwards it lit up the moon! Had a few close calls. Was thinking of eventually selling and buying a Mercedes SL pagoda-roof, a far more practical car. He sold the car to Sergio Franchi, the Italian singer he met, the TV shows were sent from nearby Elstree and Sergio and his wife and sister used to spend a lot of time at Alec' home. Franchi intended to take the car to the USA, where he hoped to live. He did this, but sold the car early on, perhaps to help buy his new home.
It was a fun car to be in. Very quiet. And Alec, old sea-dog as he was, always drove top down. It did 9 mpg, 12 if very easy on the throttle. The brakes were ok at normal speeds, but tended to smell a bit at higher speeds. Handling was quiet good for such a big car. He never had any problems with it, apart from one puncture, a big job not to be repeated! Only the little squares in the seats are frogskin, frogs are small! The rest was Swiss mountain-goat, I recall. Very cool seats to sit on on hot days, the frogskin breathes very well. Wears well too, tough! Nice to see the car being loved and looked after, Alec would love to see it now! (He's dead, of course).
I remember when this car sold at Barrett-Jackson's, after Alain DeCadenet left the television coverage & the auction began to look like Mecum's, which made me wonder why the seller brought it there, of all places, since he wasn't going to get anywhere near what the car was worth, I thought.
One of the event's SpeedVision announcers claimed that the seller was offered $4.2Million for the car, but, he decided to try his "luck" at B-J.
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