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.