Бентли: Британдық сәнді автомобильдер тарихы мен қазіргі жағдайы

British luxury automobile manufacturer owned by Volkswagen Group

Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. Bentley has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998 and consolidated under VW's premium brand arm Audi since 2022. Prominent models extend from the historic sports racing Bentley 4½ Litre and Bentley Speed Six; the more recent Bentley R Type Continental, Bentley Turbo R, and Bentley Arnage; to its current model line, including the Flying Spur, Continental GT, Bentayga and the Mulsanne—which are marketed worldwide, with China as its largest market as of November 2012. Today most Bentley models are assembled at the company's Crewe factory, with a small number assembled at Volkswagen's Dresden factory, Germany, and with bodies for the Continental manufactured in Zwickau and for the Bentayga manufactured at the Volkswagen Bratislava Plant. The joining and eventual separation of Bentley and Rolls Royce followed a series of mergers and acquisitions, beginning with the 1931 purchase by Rolls Royce of Bentley, then in receivership. In 1971, Rolls Royce itself was forced into receivership and the UK government nationalised the company—splitting it into an aerospace company (Rolls Royce Plc) and an automotive company (Rolls Royce Motors Limited, including Bentley). Rolls Royce Motors was subsequently sold to engineering conglomerate Vickers, and in 1998 Vickers sold Rolls Royce to Volkswagen AG, including Bentley with its name and logos (but not the name "Rolls Royce").

Before World War I, Walter Owen Bentley and his brother, Horace Millner Bentley, sold French DFP cars in Cricklewood, North London, but W. O, as Walter was known, always wanted to design and build his own cars. At the DFP factory, in 1913, he noticed an aluminium paperweight and thought that aluminium might be a suitable replacement for cast iron to fabricate lighter pistons. The first Bentley aluminium pistons were fitted to Sopwith Camel aero engines during the First World War. The same day that the Paris Peace Conference to end World War I started, Walter Owen ("W. O.") Bentley founded Bentley Motors Limited, on 18 January 1919 and registered Bentley Motors Ltd. in August 1919. In October he exhibited a car chassis (with a dummy engine) at the London Motor Show. Ex–Royal Flying Corps officer Clive Gallop designed an innovative four valves per cylinder engine for the chassis. By December the engine was built and running. Delivery of the first cars was scheduled for June 1920, but development took longer than estimated so the date was extended to September 1921. Bentley's first major event was the 1922 Indianapolis 500, a race dominated by specialized cars with Duesenberg racing chassis. They entered a modified road car driven by works driver Douglas Hawkes, accompanied by riding mechanic H. S. "Bertie" Browning. Hawkes completed the full 500 mile (805 km) and finished 13th with an average speed of after starting in 19th position. The team was then rushed back to England to compete in the 1922 RAC Tourist Trophy.

In an ironic reference to his heavyweight boxer's stature, Captain Woolf Barnato was nicknamed "Babe". In 1925, he acquired his first Bentley, a 3 litre. With this car, he won numerous Brooklands races. Just a year later, he acquired the Bentley business itself. The Bentley enterprise was always underfunded, but inspired by the 1924 Le Mans win by John Duff and Frank Clement, Barnato agreed to finance Bentley's business. Barnato had incorporated Baromans Ltd in 1922, which existed as his finance and investment vehicle. Via Baromans, Barnato initially invested in excess of £100,000, saving the business and its workforce. A financial reorganisation of the original Bentley company was carried out and all existing creditors paid off for £75,000. Existing shares were devalued from £1 each to just 1 shilling, or 5% of their original value. Barnato held 149,500 of the new shares giving him control of the company and he became chairman. Barnato injected further cash into the business: £35,000 secured by debenture in July 1927; £40,000 in 1928; £25,000 in 1929. With renewed financial input, W. O. Bentley was able to design another generation of cars.

The Bentley Boys were a group of British motoring enthusiasts that included Barnato, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, steeple chaser George Duller, aviator Glen Kidston, automotive journalist S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis, and Dudley Benjafield. The Bentley Boys favoured Bentley cars. Many were independently wealthy and many had a military background. They kept the marque's reputation for high performance alive; Bentley was noted for its four consecutive victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, from 1927 to 1930. Birkin developed the 4½ litre, lightweight Blower Bentley at Welwyn Garden City in 1929 and produced five racing specials, starting with Bentley Blower No.1 which was optimised for the Brooklands racing circuit. Birkin overruled Bentley and put the model on the market before it was fully developed. As a result, it was unreliable. During the March 1930 Blue Train Races, Barnato raised the stakes on Rover and its Rover Light Six, having raced and beaten Le Train Bleu for the first time, to better that record with his 6½ litre Bentley Speed Six on a bet of £100. He drove against the train from Cannes to Calais, then by ferry to Dover, and finally London, travelling on public highways, and won. Barnato drove his H. J. Mulliner–bodied formal saloon in the race against the Blue Train. Two months later, on 21 May 1930, he took delivery of a Speed Six with streamlined fastback "sportsman coupé" by Gurney Nutting. Both cars became known as the "Blue Train Bentleys"; the latter is regularly mistaken for, or erroneously referred to as being, the car that raced the Blue Train, while in fact Barnato named it in memory of his race. A painting by Terence Cuneo depicts the Gurney Nutting coupé racing along a road parallel to the Blue Train, which scenario never occurred as the road and railway did not follow the same route.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression throttled the demand for Bentley's expensive motor cars. In July 1931 two mortgage payments were due which neither the company nor Barnato, the guarantor, were able to meet. On 10 July 1931 a receiver was appointed. Napier offered to buy Bentley with the purchase to be final in November 1931. Instead, British Central Equitable Trust made a winning sealed bid of £125,000. British Central Equitable Trust later proved to be a front for Rolls Royce Limited. Not even Bentley himself knew the identity of the purchaser until the deal was completed. before resuming at the Rolls Royce works in Derby. Unhappy with his role at Rolls Royce, when his contract expired at the end of April 1935 W. O. Bentley left to join Lagonda. When the new Bentley 3½ litre appeared in 1933, it was a sporting variant of the Rolls Royce 20/25, which disappointed some traditional customers yet was well received by many others. W. O. Bentley was reported as saying, "Taking all things into consideration, I would rather own this Bentley than any other car produced under that name". a slogan Rolls Royce continued to use for Bentley cars until the 1950s. All Bentleys produced from 1931 to 2004 used inherited or shared Rolls Royce chassis, and adapted Rolls Royce engines, and are described by critics as badge engineered Rolls Royces.

In preparation for war, Rolls Royce and the British Government searched for a location for a shadow factory to ensure production of aero engines. Crewe, with its excellent road and rail links, as well as being located in the northwest away from the aerial bombing starting in mainland Europe, was a logical choice. Crewe also had extensive open farming land. Construction of the factory started on a 60 acre area on the potato fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine rolling off the production line five months later. 25,000 Merlin engines With the war in Europe over and the general move towards the then new jet engines, Rolls Royce concentrated its aero engine operations at Derby and moved motor car operations to Crewe. Some years later, initially only for export, the Rolls Royce Silver Dawn was introduced, a standard steel Bentley but with a Rolls Royce radiator grille for a small extra charge, and this convention continued. Chassis remained available to coachbuilders until the end of production of the Bentley S3, which was replaced for October 1965 by the chassis less monocoque construction T series.

The Continental fastback coupé was aimed at the UK market, most cars, 164 plus a prototype, being right hand drive. The chassis was produced at the Crewe factory and shared many components with the standard R type. Other than the R Type standard steel saloon, R Type Continentals were delivered as rolling chassis to the coachbuilder of choice. Coachwork for most of these cars was completed by H. J. Mulliner & Co. who mainly built them in fastback coupe form. Other coachwork came from Park Ward (London) who built six, later including a drophead coupe version. Franay (Paris) built five, Graber (Wichtrach, Switzerland) built three, one of them later altered by Köng (Basel, Switzerland), and Pininfarina made one. James Young (London) built in 1954 a Sports Saloon for the owner of James Young's, James Barclay. The early R Type Continental has essentially the same engine as the standard R Type, but with modified carburation, induction and exhaust manifolds along with higher gear ratios. After July 1954 the car was fitted with an engine, having now a larger bore of with a total displacement of The compression ratio was raised to 7.25:1.

A Bentley Continental GT3 entered by the M Sport factory team won the Silverstone round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series. This was Bentley's first official entry in a British race since the 1930 RAC Tourist Trophy.