1939 Bentley Corniche Prototype

A unique and specially honored Bentley is the prototype 1939 Corniche design.  Its body was designed and  built in France on a chassis supplied by Rolls-Royce's Bentley subsidiary.  Perhaps even more unusual was its total lack of an identifying Bentley grille.

The Bentley Motors Limited web site about the car is here.  It stated:

"The ‘Embiricos’ Bentley 4¼ Litre of 1938 inspired Bentley to create an aerodynamic Mark V called the Corniche.  Although the original body was destroyed in the war, it was the precursor to the iconic R Type Continental of 1952.  To celebrate Bentley’s 2019 centenary, the Corniche was recreated using a combination of original Mark V parts and the specialist fabrication skills of Mulliner, Bentley’s in-house bespoke and coachbuilding division.

"In the late 1930s the ‘Embiricos’ Bentley, designed by Georges Paulin and bodied by Pourtout, had shown the value of aerodynamics for fast road and track driving.  Its success inspired Bentley to commission a one-off 4-door Mark V in a similar ‘streamlined’ style.  A Mark V prototype chassis (14BV) was sent to France, where Bentley designer Ivan Evernden worked jointly with Paulin at the Paris workshops of Carosserie Vanvooren.  The car, named ‘Corniche’, was intended to be shown at the 1939 London Motor Show alongside other coachbuilders’ offerings for the Mark V chassis."

Unfortunately, the car was destroyed in an August, 1939 crash.  The recreation was part of Bentley's 2019 Centennial celebrations.

Photos below are via Bentley unless noted otherwise.

Gallery

First, three black-and-white photos of the original car.  The concept was an aerodynamic (in the late 1930s sense) four-door saloon.  In those days, bodies with "streamlining" features tended to be coupés.

An earlier Bentley saloon with aerodynamic pretentions (keeping in mind that Bentley did not offer "factory" bodies before World War 2).  It's a 1936 4 1/4 Litre Airflow Saloon by Gurney Nutting - R.M. Sotheby's photo.  Standard wheelbase for this series was 126 inches (3200 mm).  Compare its proportions to those of the Corniche in the image below.

Mark V Bentleys such as the Corniche had 124 inch (3150 mm) wheelbases.  This car's passenger compartment is placed farther forward than that of the Airflow.  And its proportions are more sensible and attractive.

The odd styling feature is the frontal composition that will be examined in more detail below.

Right profile of the replica.  The strong falling-off of the beltline abaft of the A-pillar is a French feature, but usually found in less-exaggerated form on English saloons.

No doubt Paulin gave plan-view feature shaping considerable thought.

Looking down on the front end - image via Classic & Sports Car magazine.  Teardrop shapes aplenty here.   Unusual is the prow lacking a grille.  Suggestive of pre-1930 Renaults.  It's flanked by actual grilles that seem rather small for providing cooling air to the radiator.

Head-on frontal view.  Not at all Bentley-like.  The advent of World War 2 shortly after the original Corniche was destroyed ended any chance of production.  Given the lack of factory bodies, it's possible that Corniche buyers would have retained Paulin's frontal design.  Or maybe Bentley might have provided a front end or even a hood-grille unit that was more Bentley-like, though not necessarily as seen below.

An example of a 1939-vintage Bentley front end.  The car is a 1938 4 1/4 Litre Sports Saloon by Mulliner - Bonham's photo.

Four-Door British "Airline" Sedans

I posted "Gallery of English 'Airline' Designs" here, presenting examples of fastback (or at least rounded) aft end profiles applied to basic 1930s production cars.   The idea was that those less-angular rear ends offered streamlining -- improved aerodynamic efficiency.  In practice, since old-style front ends were essentially retained, such improvement was probably minimal.  Basically, it was a styling fad.

The majority of British "Airline" cars were two-door models, though I did discuss the 4-door 1935 Clémont-Talbot 105 Airline Saloon here, and the 1938 Riley 16/4 2.5-litre Kestrel Blue Streak Six-Light here.

Today's post presents a larger collection of four-door Airline designs.

Gallery

1936 Riley Kestrel Six-Light Saloon - HandH Auctions photo
Given the need for rear doors and headroom for back-seat passengers, 4-door Airlines were seldom as sleek as many of the 2-door variety.  That said, another factor was wheelbase; short-wheelbase 2-door Airlines also lacked sleekness.  Rileys were sporty cars, hence the long hood seen here.  But the passenger compartment was fairly compact and set aft, so the car's profile is smoothly curved, but not what I consider sleek.  The term "six-light" is the British version of "six-window" in American.

1938c. Standard Flying Twenty - publicity image
Mid-1930s 4-door British and French sedans tended to feature beltlines that fell off towards the rear.  Details varied, as can be seen in the image collection here.  The only exception is the Rover shown three images below.

1935 Talbot (British) Airline Saloon - car-for-sale photo
As mentioned above, I dealt with this car in a previous post.  Back seat headroom seems limited, but results in the sleekest profile shown.

1937 British Salmson by Whittingham & Mitchell - publicity image
Another British offshoot of a French brand.  This is the one side view I could find. This car has the most vertical aft profile of the set pictured here.

1934 Rover Speed 14 Streamline "Coupé" - Bonhams photo
Marketed as a "Coupé, the body type is what I would call a close-coupled sedan.  The reason for that curious "coupé" designation was that Rover also offered a 14 Streamline Saloon.  It had a boxier body than the Coupé's, but at least featured a rounded aft profile.  Details: this car is a "four-light," whereas the saloon was a "six-light."

1935 Bentley 3.5 Litre Aerodynamic Saloon by Rippon Brothers - Bonhams
Another "four-light" design.  Falling-off beltline yields a large rear-door window.  The aft profile is a subtle S-curve, adding a touch more sleekness.

1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Streamlined Saloon by Park Ward - Gooding photo
Long wheelbase, considerable sleekness on this early (1934) Airline-type design.  Magnificent.  I wrote about it here.

1933 Streamline Bentley Two-Door Saloon by Park Ward

The 1933 Bentley treated in this post is an early example of British "Airline" styling.

This term was applied to a comparatively easy means of giving existing designs some appearance of "streamlining" by creating curved aft body shape profiles.  While rear parts of cars seemed to be aerodynamically influenced, frontal parts retained "draggy" bits such as detached headlights and S-curved front fenders that could trap flowing air when the car was in motion.

I wrote about Airline designs here and elsewhere.

English automobile styling until recent decades was noted for being cautiously conservative, slow to adopt features found elsewhere.  For instance, the futuristic Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow appeared in America in 1933.  The truly aerodynamically-influenced Czechoslovak Tatra 77 appeared around the same time.

I don't know when the first British Airline design appeared.  But it probably wasn't much earlier than 1933 when our subject car was designed.  Its chassis number is B 41 AB, and was listed as sold to a G. A. Nicholson in February of 1934.  Its custom body was designed and built by the well-known Park Ward coacbuilding firm.

Unless noted, images below are via Gallery Aaldering.

Gallery

The front is actually cleaner than even some mid-1930s Airline cars, though the nearly-flat grille and distinct headlights are non-aerodynamic.  The rounded fender fronts help prevent airflow into the wheelwell.

The fenders also are skirted.  These on the front fenders are unusual for the time in England, and also the teardrop fender profile.  The windshield is raked, but not strongly so.  The beltline falls off abaft of the B-pillar, a fairly common Airline feature even later in the decade.

Some Airline backlight windows were placed too high for decent driver viewing to the rear.  But this one, while small by later standards, is somewhat useful.

Although the rear profile is curved, the car's sides are strongly vertical -- not important aerodynamically.  The body tapers slightly to the rear in plan-view, which can be aerodynamically useful.  Note the unusual, for the time, lack of running boards.

This, and the following image are via Bilweb Auctions.  The trunk arrangement is interesting, especially the placement of the spare tire and the trunk lid hinging.  The spare's wheel hub might potentially damage luggage as the lid is closed.

The dashboard and instrumentation.  Plenty of British woodwork.

Sir Roy Fedden's Park Ward "Streamlined" Bentley

This image above was scanned from my 1974 copy of "Bentley: Fifty Years of the Marque" by Johnnie Green, page 169, Amazon link here.

Its caption reads in part: "Sir Roy Fedden's specially built Park Ward streamlined saloon on chassis number B189AE, registration number AXM 19, from which valuable information was compiled on reduction of air resistance and decreased petrol consumption with increased speed..."

Roy Fedden (Wikipedia entry here) was the Bristol Aeroplane Company's engineer in charge of aero motors.

Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1931.  Rolls acquired a stake in the Park Ward coachbuilding firm in 1933, eventually assuming total control in 1939.

Also during the 1930s a design fashion in England was the "Airline" style that I wrote about here and elsewhere.  Those designs usually retained non-streamlined normal production front ends that were coupled with rounded-off aft ends.  Those front ends considerably reduced any aerodynamic benefits the rear ends might have created.

Fedden's car Bentley 3 1/2 Litre is interesting due its design details and because it is a four-door Airline type, most Airlines being coupés or 2-door saloons.  It's also a comparatively early Airline design, the fashion seems to have peaked around 1936.   The car still exists, residing in Volkswagen's Autostadt museum.  The museum dates the car to 1935, but its chassis number mentioned above is from 1933-1934.  So presumably it took Park Ward half a year or so to create the body, completing it in 1935.

Gallery

This image via Deutsche Welle shows the size of the headlights.  They surely would have created a good amount of air turbulence, largely negating any front end aerodynamic features.

Another image via Deutsche Welle.  Note the gap between the front cycle fender and the forward door, and that it isn't filled with a running board.  Most cars of that era had S-shaped, ogive-shaped front fenders that blended onto running boards.  That said, running boards are only needed below doors, so the solution seen here worked just fine.  Presumably cycle fenders were used because conventional S-shaped fenders could trap flowing air in the zone abaft of the tires.

Martin Hesp photo taken at the museum.  Besides the rounded aft profile, the only other aerodynamic feature seen here is the slightly raked windshield.  I wonder why rear-wheel openings weren't covered by spats, a feature known at the time.  They might have improved airflow a little, but creating inconvenience when wheels needed to be removed.

A Wikimedia image.  Note the cutlines on the aft part of the body.  Presumably they are for access to an integral trunk and/or a spare tire.  Most saloon trunks in those days were either externally mounted or discrete shapes blended into the basic body form.  The small backlight window is placed so high that it probably was nearly useless for driver's rear visibility (note the frontal view above and compare the backlight opening to the driver's head).

Bentley "Blue Train" Coupé by J Gurney Nutting (and Others)

Famed English illustrator Terence Cuneo's 1970 painting "Bentley Versus Blue Train"
It seems it didn't actually happen that way, though the legend still persists.  The car in the painting was owned by Woolf Bernato who contolled Bentley Motors financially at that time.  And it was he who did famously race the French Cannes-to-Calais Train bleu, arriving in London before the train reached Calais.

But the pictured car, the 1930 Bentley 6 1/2 Litre Speed Six Special "Blue Train" by J Gurney Nutting, was not in that race.  As the Pebble Beach Concours d'Élégance web site explains:

"For many years now, it has been universally believed that Barnato drove his Gurney Nutting coupé, a fabulously flamboyant Grand Touring three-seater with rakish helmet wings, the third seat fitted sidesaddle beneath a sloping roof, the whole ensemble finished off by a pair of huge Zeiss headlamps to the front, a long, louvred panel along both sides of the chassis and a neat trunk to the rear of the body (chassis HM2855, registered GJ3811).

..."A whole sheaf of press cuttings for the Blue Train run give the date definitively as the 13th /14th of March 1930.  But the Bentley Motors Service Record for the coupe shows that it wasn’t passed off Final Test at Bentley Motors, and the Five-Year Guarantee issued, until the 21st of May 1930, ten weeks after the Blue Train run.  Further, the records show that on the 2nd of June, it had only covered 391 miles.

..."The fact remains that all the evidence points to Barnato carrying out the Blue Train run in a rather more down-to-earth (insofar as a Speed Six Bentley is ever down-to-earth) four-door Weymann fabric saloon by H J Mulliner (chassis BA2592 registered UU5999) delivered to Barnato in June 1929."

Today's post features the Bentley coupé that didn't race the train.  Rather, it features its Gurney Nutting design as manifested in the original car and a recreation built more than 20 years later.  As best I can tell, at least six recreations exist.  One was made by Racing Green Engineering in the early 1950s.  Others have been built by Bob Petersen Engineering, another English firm.  Its Web site states:

"We have built five of these stunning cars based on the famous Barnato car which reputedly raced the ‘Blue Train’ across France.  All five were built with very individual styling to the interior, with one a supercharged version to add even more ‘spice’ to the mix."

Exteriors essentially matched that of the original car.  Chassis and mechanical components are from the 1930s to the best of the builder's intentions and parts availability.  For instance, in at least one case, a Rolls-Royce engine was used rather than a 1930 Bentley motor.

The design, probably by A.F. McNeil, has a vaguely streamlined look due to its low passenger compartment greenhouse with its sloped profile.  However, actual automotive streamlining was in its infancy in 1929-30 when Gurney Nutting created it.  That said, the car certainly does look aggressively fast compared to others of 1930.

Gallery

This is the car Barnato actually raced agains the Blue Train.  Seen here at Pebble Beach, image via the Concours web site.

The "Blue Train" car when young.

Here it is in a more recent photo (source unknown to me).

Bentley 6 1/2 Litre Speed Six Blue Train built by  Racing Green Engineering in 1953.  Photos are car-for-sale images by Gallery Aaldering of the Netherlands.

Side view showing the greenhouse profile.  The length of the hood essentially equals that of the passenger compartment.

The backlight window seems virtually useless for driver visibility to the rear.   Note the lack of bumpers, typical of Bentleys of that era.

Bentley Pourtout/Embiricos-Inspired Homage Roadster

Featured here is the 1936 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre homage to the Pourtout crafted "Embiricos" coupé designed by Georges Poulin.  This roadster version was constructed by Chalmers & Gathings.  Some background on the 1938 coupé is here.  The roadster by Chalmers and Gathings was based on a 1936 Bentley 4 1/4 litre car with serial number B25GP and engine number N8BU.

Hemmings had information regarding the homage car here, including:

"An award-winning one-of-a-kind car, this Bentley was designed and built over an eighteen-year period, conceived, and developed by its enthusiastic first owner, a graduate of Art Center College of Design (the premier automobile design college) and founder of his own design office.  A longtime Bentley enthusiast and prior long-term R-Type Continental owner, his love of Bentley cars spanned more than thirty years including ownership of many Derby Bentleys and a one-off Vanvooren drophead that placed second in class at Pebble Beach under his ownership.

"Initially penned as a series of design drawings in 1992, the commissioning owner, designer, and builder of this 4 ¼ liter Derby Bentley began construction in 1993.  The original donor car was outfitted with Gurney Nutting coachwork which was sold to another enthusiast for use in a separate restoration.  The rolling chassis and driveline were comprehensively restored over the next eight years in the talented hands of dedicated craftsmen at MD Coachworks in Van Nuys, CA.  Concurrent to the detailed and authentic running chassis restoration, Art Center collaborators and the commissioning owner prepared full scale lofts for fabrication of a wooden body buck and ash frame, both of which were constructed by Doug Chalmers.  The all-aluminum body was hand fabricated using the master body bucks by expert metal craftsman Bill Gathings, thus creating the name Chalmers & Gathings, in keeping with coach work traditions.  The resultant exquisite body work is inspired by the work of Georges Paulin, a prolific designer including the masterwork “Embiricos Bentley” from which this car evokes a great deal of influence in both style and proportion."

I need to note that some observers hate the practice of creating retro cars, even when based on source period components, such as the situation here.  I am ambivalent on the issue.  The present case is essentially the figurative removal of the coupé's passenger compartment greenhouse to create a roadster or cabriolet.  Topless cars of almost any sort can be more attractive (if less practical) than closed-body versions with all the shaping and detailing such greenhouses require.  The homage car here is very attractive, as can be seen in the images below.

Photos of the homage car are via Hemmings.

Gallery

1938 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre 'Embiricos' Special by Pourtout - unknown date of photo.

Rear quarter view of the 1938 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre 'Embiricos' Special by Pourtout - unknown photo source.  Compare fender area details with those of the homage roadster in the photos below.

Frontal styling is the same, aside from the roadster's lack of a bumper.

The cockpit is short, and there's no compartment for a canvas top that I can see.

Compare this quarter view with that of the Pourtout car above.  Both cars feature catwalk areas next to high, peaked, teardrop-shaped fenders fore and aft.  The forward catwalk design is of particular interest.

Buried in those wide catwalks are tapered headlight assemblies that echo fender plan-views -- but without the trailing crease.

Overhead view showing the tapered fender and boat-tail trunk elements.

The windshield differs from the original, but is in keeping with a sporty 1930s style.

Current Luxury SUVs

Crossover Sport-Utility-Vehicles (SUVs) are taking the American market by storm.  They seem to be catching on in Europe too, based on what I recently saw in northern Italy -- this despite high ($6.50 per gallon) gasoline prices there at the time.

Moreover, luxury brands have been adding SUVs to their lineups lately.  One expects luxury vehicles to be more distinctive than high-volume equivalents, though that seems to be less the case than it was decades ago.  And given that SUVs tend to have more constrained basic shapes than even current wind-tunnel tested sedans, I became curious as to how much style variation might be found in a sample of such brands and vehicles.

Results are in the images below.  Cars are shown side-view because that reveals their packaging better than other viewpoints that tend to favor brand-specific identification ornamentation.  Marques are in alphabetical order.

Gallery

2017 Honda CR-V
Not a luxury SUV, but a contemporary and popular example included as a reference point.  It rides on a shorter wheelbase than the luxury SUVs, and consequently has a narrower rear passenger door.  All the vehicles shown here have a lip overhanging the rear window (backlight), a feature dictated by wind-tunnel test.  Aside from sheet metal sculpting, SUV designers have their greatest stylistic freedom in shaping the aft side windows and the slope of the cars' sterns.

2016 Bentley Bentayga
Clearly manufacturers are running out of good names for car models.  This Bentley has the trace of a rear fender providing a visual link to its sporty Continental line.  This is its most distinctive feature, but not part of the basic body architecture.  The aft is more greatly sloped than the Honda's and its hood is longer.  My overall impression is that it's bulky.

2019 BMW X7
This BMW SUV features a comparatively long hood and short front overhang.  Rear slope is less than that of the Honda.  The passenger compartment greenhouse is high in part due to a slightly low beltline.  Its aft side window is larger than most others.  Overall, the impression is boxy.

2017 Cadillac XT5
Cadillac's main SUV is its large, boxy Escalade.  I thought I would show its smaller, less-popular XT5 instead due to its styling.  An XT6 is on the way, but few photos are available as this post is being drafted.  Features include a rising beltline and an aft slope similar to Bentley's.  Small, angular aft side window.

2017 Jaguar F-Pace
Tapered side-window treatment similar to the Cadillac's, but less angular.  Hood and overhang setup is like the BMW's.  And the aft slope is steep like the Bentley's, so carrying capacity seems secondary to sportiness -- the key factor for Jags and Bentleys.

2017 Maserati Levante
This Maserati is a trifle more sporty than the Bentley and Jaguar, if aft slope matters.  Its roofline is the most curved of the lot, making the car almost a hatchback four-door sedan instead of a SUV (the Subaru Crosstrek is a similar case).  Very short side windows due to a high beltline.  Like the Bentley, there's a trace of a rear fender, but it's cosmetic and unrelated to our main objective here.

2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Rolls sedans are shaped like bricks -- I assume the idea is to look imposing.  This SUV builds on that base, featuring a tall passenger greenhouse atop a high beltline.  All side windows are large, and there's also a large C-pillar.  Front overhang is short.  Aft slope is considerable, but not as extreme as the Maserati's, thereby reducing visual bulk ever so slightly.  Carrying capacity seems great, however.  Side sculpting is minimal.
All these luxury SUVs, aside from perhaps the Cadillac, are longer than typical mid-range SUVs found in North America.  Excepting the BMW, the slopes of the backlights (rear windows) tend to be fairly great, providing a sporting appearance and less capacity for hauling large, tall objects in their cargo zones.

The Maserati and Rolls-Royce have the most distinctive shapes.  The former is this most graceful (and least SUV-like), the latter is the most boxy (though the BMW comes close).  I won't consider overall attractiveness here because that involves frontal and rear styling as well as side sculpting and other ornamentation.

Bentley R-Type Continental: Oldsmobile Styling?

In the 1953 Fawcett Book Sports Car Album, John Wheelock Freeman made the following remarks regarding the Bentley R-Type Continental:

* * * * * The Continental Sports [Saloon] is, frankly, a snob-appeal car.  From the first, its makers unabashedly publicized it as being for the rare discriminating owner who combines unlimited driving skill with an unlimited bank balance.  Production is limited to one per month, for export only, although this situation may change.  Bodywork is a two-door five passenger closed coupé, built in special light alloy by H. J. Mulliner, whose mother seems to have been frightened by a '51 Chevrolet shortly before H. J.'s birth.  The windshield is curved in the worst American style, is placed disturbingly far from the driver.  If you don't like this piece of work, you can take your chassis in a huff to the nearest Italian coachbuilder.
* * * * *
Freeman was a consultant for the 1953 Museum of Modern Art "10 Automobiles" exhibit -- but perhaps not for the famous 1951 8 Automobiles that featured an Army Jeep along with a Cord, a Cisitalia (lent by Freeman) and others.  And if you read his 1953 book, you might detect more than a whiff of elitism, if not snobbery.

For more on the car, built 1952-55, link here (scroll down).

But what of the connection Freeman made regarding Bentley Continental and General Motors styling?

Gallery

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan advertising
Rather than the 1951 Chevrolet, I think the '49 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Club Sedan's styling is closest to the Bentley's.  Its design appeared for the 1948 model year and featured a horizontal chromed strip along the front fender and front door that aligned with the strip on the rear fender.  This was removed for 1949 98s, making for a better comparison to the Bentley.

1952 Bentley R-Type Continental (unknown photo source)
Perhaps the strongest resemblance is from the side.  The cars are 2-door models with fastback styling.  They feature a front fender that sweeps across the door, connecting to a separate rear fender.  General impression aside, details do not correspond.

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan (unknown photo source)

1952 Bentley R-Type Continental - Fiskens sales photo
The front ends are considerably different in part because the Bentley retains its traditional grille along with headlamps placed close by.

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan (unknown photo source)

1955 Bentley R-Type Continental - RM Auctions photo
Fastback styling differs considerably in that the the Bentley's back is a broad expanse, whereas the Oldsmobile's tapers towards the center with catwalks filling the space to the rear fenders.  The latter are raised over nearby sheet metal at the very rear in both cases, another superficial similarity.

Its sarcasm aside, Freeman's point has some validity.  The Continental, aside from the front ensemble, looks far more American than English, circa very early 1950s.