7 replies to this topic

[m.tanney]

  In 1994, the modeling publication Four Small Wheels reviewed a kit of the 1924 Le Mans winner. "This is...", it said, "the black Bentley. Driver Duff painted it black in memory of his Royal Flying Corps colleagues who had been killed fighting over France between 1914 & 1918".
  I usually take FSW at its word. The people at Grand Prix Models are sticklers for accuracy and have an enviable research library. But there are two problems with the statement about the black Bentley: 1) It is at least half wrong. Duff spent his war on the ground with the Royal Berkshire Regiment. 2) No source is given. I have checked Michael Hay's Bentley: the Vintage Years and Darrell Berthon's A Racing History of the Bentley. Neither mentions a black car. That only leaves a score of Bentley books, a couple of dozen Le Mans histories (in French and English) and a few decades of the Bentley Driver's Club magazine as possible sources. Two of the more likely sources would be Moity and Teissedre's 24 Heures du Mans, 1923-1992 and Dominique Pascal's The British at Le Mans, two books that were frequently cited by FSW around that time. Another possibility would be Elizabeth Nagle's The Other Bentley Boys, which has a chapter on Duff. Unfortunately, I don't have any of them.



Another view: Clement, W.O., Duff and the car in question

  As you can see, the photogaphic evidence isn't much help. Bearing in mind the strange things that old black and white film could do to certain colours, the lighting conditions when the pictures were taken, and the dirtiness of the car, it could have been black. It was certainly darker than Duff's 1923 car. Both cars were private entries. They may have been Duff's personal cars, or whatever the dealership of Duff & Addington could spare.
  The 1924 Le Mans winner still exists and it is painted black, though it seems highly unlikely that it's the original paint. Its owner must have reason to believe that it was black in 1924.
  Does anyone have a source for the black Bentley story?

  Mike

[jarama]

Mike,

the picture in Pascal's book "The British at Le Mans" is the same you've posted, while the text don't give a clue about the colour of the car...

Carles.

[m.tanney]

  Here are a couple of photos of Duff's Le Mans winner as it appeared at the 2000 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed:

In the paddock

On the track

[Pete Stowe]

Originally posted by m.tanney
Does anyone have a source for the black Bentley story?
  Mike

You could try contacting the Bentley Drivers Club, or more specifically their archive, the WO Bentley Memorial Foundation (e-mail address is on their website www.bdcl.co.uk ), or post the question in one of the public forums on their Bulletin Board.

[Tim Murray]

Originally posted by m.tanney
Another possibility would be Elizabeth Nagle's The Other Bentley Boys, which has a chapter on Duff.

The Other Bentley Boys goes into a lot of detail about the preparation of Duff's Le Mans Bentley, but - you've guessed it - nothing about its colour.

[m.tanney]

Originally posted by Tim Murray
The Other Bentley Boys goes into a lot of detail about the preparation of Duff's Le Mans Bentley, but - you've guessed it - nothing about its colour.

  Does it have much to say about Duff himself? A very interesting character, from what I've been able to learn.

Originally poted by Jarama
the picture in Pascal's book "The British at Le Mans" is the same you've posted, while the text don't give a clue about the colour of the car.

  Nothing in Nagle, nothing in Pascal. Of my "likely sources", that just leaves Moity and Teissedre's mammoth 24 Heures du Mans. Surely, one of TNF's Le Mans specialists must have a copy.

[Gerr]

Mike, that sentence from the "Four Small Wheels" review is borrowed word for word (IIRC) from an article on Duff's Bentley, by Bill Boddy, in a "Classic & Sportscar" supplement titled "British Racing Green" circa 1990.

[m.tanney]

  Thanks for the source, Gerr. I'll try to get ahold of that issue. I'm surprised that the statement came from WB. As you know, George Daszkowski recently published a letter from WB, written in reply to George's enquiry about Duff, on the forum of the Canadian Motor Sport History Group. In his letter, WB said he had "no confirmation" of Duff's being with the RFC. Reading it, I assumed that he hadn't heard the RFC story before George wrote to him. Now, it turns out that he wrote it...