1950 Bentley Mk VI Drophead

“ One of just 45 RHD cars built to this beautiful Park Ward design, the car's body is hand-crafted from lightweight aluminium panels. ”
Being offered as part of our curated auction in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Annual Rally at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire on the 26th – 28th June’26.

Background
The Mk VI four-door standard steel sports saloon was the first post-war luxury car from Bentley. Announced in May 1946 and produced from 1946 to 1952 this very expensive car was a big success for the company. it was also the first car from Rolls-Royce with all-steel coachwork and the first car to be completely assembled and finished at their factory.

In 1952 both Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn and Bentley Mk VI standard steel bodies were redesigned to incorporate a boot of about twice the size and the result became known as the R-Type Bentley. Mk VI engines and chassis were modified to provide higher performance and sold to be bodied by selected coachbuilders as the first Bentley Continentals.

The decision to offer a complete car with 'in house' bodywork had been dictated by harsh economic reality and 'export or die' was the mantra of British industry in the post-war period.

Arguably, the person most responsible for this vital incursion into foreign automobile markets was Government Minister Sir Stafford Cripps, who told British car manufacturers that unless they could guarantee to export 30% (soon rising to 50%) of their products, the government would refuse to supply them with steel.

Despite the misgivings of traditionalists, exports rose steadily and, when the home market stabilised, the classically styled 'standard steel' bodywork proved to be entirely acceptable to most potential buyers, making up 80% of total production of this first post-war Bentley.

The Mk Vl used the same six-cylinder B60 4 ¼-litre ‘F-head’ straight-six engine as the pre-war Mk V.

A four-speed syncromesh manual transmission was fitted to the Bentley version, with the floor-mounted gear stick sitting to the right of the driver.

In Ian Fleming’s early novels, Bond's one true love was his 1933 Bentley 4½ Litre.

After this was destroyed during a chase sequence with the villainous Drax in Moonraker, he used his gambling winnings to buy a Bentley Mk VI.

So, there you go.

Overview
Exactly 57 examples of the Bentley Mark VI Drophead Coupé with Park Ward coachwork (Design Number 99) were built.

These bespoke vehicles featured lightweight, corrosion-resistant aluminium panels.

Of the 57 built, just 45 were in RHD configuration and intended for the British marketplace, which makes this stunningly elegant car exceptionally rare.

The chassis was built on April 1950 and delivered to Park Ward’s Willesden works where the exquisite drophead body was made and fitted. The car was completed in July 1950 and delivered with a metallic grey exterior finish, grey leather trim and black hood.

We understand that the car’s first registration was KON 1.

Unusually, it was specified from new with an electrically powered hood; something that momentarily confused the folks at our HQ, who weren’t expecting to find a powered hood on a 1950 car and were initially at something of a loss as to how to get the roof up or down.

The vendor purchased the car from a gentleman in Canterbury, who was just the car’s third owner, in June 2016.

A good deal of the heavy lifting on the car had been carried out by the Canterbury owner, and much of it through Ghost Motor Works Ltd of Kent, from whom the vendor purchased the car and whose services he continued to use for the car’s upkeep, repair and maintenance.

In the course of the vendor’s 19-or-so years of ownership the car has been a much-loved and very well used part of the family.

He has some 20 or so other fine classics, but chose this one for a 2,000-mile round-trip to the South of France some years ago and also found that, of all the cars in his collection, it was the quietly luxurious Bentley that had the most effective calming influence when used as a conveyance for his new-born son in 2016.

In more recent years the car has lived a fairly quiet and sedentary life in a warm, dry storage space. The car’s upkeep and maintenance has been entrusted to the mechanic who takes care of the vendor’s collection.

We have driven the car and can attest that it starts promptly, purrs into quiet, orderly mechanical action without argument or clamour, handles perfectly well for one so large, stops when asked to do so, and is generally a pleasure to drive.

Estimate: £50,000 - £70,000

View The Current Bid Price HERE