| Bentley And The Winged "B" | ||
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by Ross Finlay (06 Mar 02) It's no wonder that Bentley Motors, counting down the days until it separates from Rolls-Royce, has decided to up-date the badge, very slightly, as it prepares to set out on its own again. Well, as part of the Volkswagen Group, of course, but certainly with an independent identity. Since the Vintage Sports Car Club's universally accepted date for the finish of the vintage era is 1930, the original company's last full year before the Rolls-Royce take-over, it's also no wonder that there's plenty of information and folklore about the badge. That's something which, as with its Le Mans history and all the rest, the modern Bentley Motors doesn't intend to let us forget. W.O. Bentley and his associates started designing the original 3-litre Bentley in 1919, and the first one left the factory in 1921. The badge was designed by his friend, the famous motoring artist Freddie Gordon Crosby, and this is where the information about the new 2002 badge may have gone slightly skew-whiff. Bentley Motors says that Crosby's original design dates from 1911, but there were no Bentley cars as early as that. Before World War I, W.O. was a partner in the London agency for the French DFP make - and drove one in the 1914 Tourist Trophy race. So, although bolts of lighting may be hurled at CARkeys about this apparent lèse majesté, it looks as if the 1911 date of origin for the badge is a misprint. Anyway, Gordon Crosby's design continued through the years, modified from time to time - very occasionally, in fact - both in the wing arrangement and in the shape of the B. There was one change in the early 1930s, and another in the 1990s, but the 2002 badge is still clearly one more derivative of the original. The Deliberate Mistake One feature of the first badge hasn't survived. Gordon Crosby designed it with a different number of wing feathers on each side. You don't notice it at a casual glance, and the supposition is that it was drawn that way to confound forgers, who might not have been aware of the deliberate discrepancy. Bentley Motors has gone to a lot of trouble in creating the new badge, which, as so often with these corporate identity features, has a considerable amount of company philosophising behind it. Even the design of the latest B is a modified version of the lettering on the car's engine cover. In the new badge, the B stands on a red background. That's a tacit reference to the "Red Label" and so on Bentleys of the 1920s. In their classic 1954 book The Vintage Motor Car, Cecil Clutton and John Stanford explained the background to the various coloured enamels used on the W.O. Bentley cars. All Bentley purists are aware of which colours correspond with which models - but it's not easy. The 3-litre long-chassis model and all cars up to 1922 have blue enamel, while the 3-litre short-chassis has red. Most, but not all, of the 3-litre 100mph-chassis cars use green. Black was used for the 4½-litre and supercharged (W.O. disliked those) models. The 6½-litre Standard Six went back to blue, while the 6½-litre Speed Six used green - or, to confuse the issue still further, a colour "to choice". The majestic 8-litre and the despised 1931 4-litre returned to blue. There will, of course, be an examination on this subject in a later edition of CARkeys. No notes on how many Speed Sixes were produced with red enamel will be allowed in the examination room. Candidates will also be required to submit a 2000-word essay on "Would Bentley Motors now be under the same ownership as Bugatti if Rolls-Royce hadn't out-bid Napier at the auction in 1931?"
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The Bentley badge isn't just a symbol of a famous and rejuvenating marque. Think how many other companies - even in the modern kit car scene - have taken it as the starting point for their own designs.
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