Bentley - Bentley 4 1/2 litre
After the 6 cylinder model was built, there was still a good demand for the 4 cylinder car, so the 3 litre Bentley, which was being continually updated, was improved and upgraded. A new cylinder block was made allowing the bore to increase from 80 to 100mm. At the same time the crankshaft big end journals were increased in diameter which with the white metal bearings, and because with their bronze thick shells (for white metalling) and so on the crankshaft needed to have the stroke reduced by 9 mm to rotate in the crankcase, making the new car 4.4 litre (4398cc), and called the 4 1/2 litre. All Bentley 4 1/2 litres were sold on the longer 10ft 10 inch chassis, so with the standard length bonnets the bodies can look overly long! But a handful of the earlier cars were made on the 9 foot 9 1/2 inch chassis. The radiators were originally 3 litre type that were lengthened downwards, but the first 4 1/2 litre to have what we now know of as the Bentley 4 1/2 litre radiator was the fourth chassis. The Bentley 4 1/2 litre was built from 1927 until the companies closure in 1931. The new Bentley company, taken over by Rolls Royce, also built up a few 3 and 4 1/2 litres from spares (and some acquired second hand parts such as re used chassis) known as the RC chassis cars. Driving a car in original specification today makes one realise just how good these cars were in the day, excellent performance and keeping up with modern traffic and motorways.
The tyre size to fit on a 4 1/2 litre is the 600x21 size which we make at Blockley. Nothing is as good, or as authentic, as the tyre we have produced, resulting in perfect road manners, which we are able to offer at a reasonable price because we sell our products direct and avoid the Classic tyre wholesaler mark-ups. See full details of this superb tyre at the link below. For the supercharged 4 1/2 litre the tyre to fit is also the 600x21 size, but if a wider tyre is required for the supercharged car we would recommend the 6.50/7.00x20 which is similar diameter, making the cars look so much better than the larger diameter 7.00x21's that many fit.
