Description
Author: Rivers Fletcher, Hardbound, 224 Pages, ISBN: 0856140821, 1st Edition 1982, Second-Hand book in excellent order !
Bentley — a name synonymous with speed, engineering excellence and beauty is renowned the world over for its victories in the Le Mans Twenty-Four Hour Races in France during the 1920s and 1930s. This wonderfully sleek machine, produced today by the Rolls Royce Company, continues to outclass everything else on the roads.
This book is not a history of the company or its racing, nor does it tell the story of the Bentley Drivers Club which has been a leading one-make Club for many years. It is the author's personal story of fifty years with the marque and the reminiscences of his relationship with friends like the "Bentey Boys": Woolf Barnaato, Sir Henry Birkin, S.C.H. Davis and Jack and Clive Dunfee. As a callow youth the author experienced the thrill of driving with the world's land speed record holder, Sir Malcolm Campbell in a three lime Bentley. A single lap decided his future and Rivers went on to serve his apprenticeship with the original Bentley Company at Cricklewood, later joining their sales department.
Rivers' experiences of driving, racing, and road and track testing all the Bentley models are chronicled with lively wit, including the handling of the latest model — the Mulsanne Turbo. Over 200 photographs, most
previously unpublished, appear in the book contributing to this unique glimpse into the world of Bentley.
Alec Francis Rivers Fletcher, known to motor racing enthusiasts all over the world as 'Rivers', grew up in the golden age of mot racing. Even as a school boy he was 'car mad', and fortunately he met all the right people at the right time. When still a school boy he was taken on as a riding mechanic to Malcolm Campbell when he won a Grand Prix at Brooklands.
Once he left school he joined Bentley as an apprentice, quickly involving himself wi the Racing Team, lie developed a special aptitude for the behind-the-scenes organization of motor racing and took man photographs and films. At Brooklands he marshalled and tested many famous racing cars and was motor consultant to Gainsborough Films. During the war he instigated the famous `Rembrandts', a series of meetings, and organized the first racing event after the war.
Rivers has competed successfully in sprints and speed hill climbs with his small private equipe. He has also travelled with the Owen Organization BRM team for nearly 20 years and gives talks and film shows throughout the English-speaking world. Rivers has owned fine examples of the three principal types of Bentley cars, made at Cricklewood, Derby and Crowe and has raced his 4 1/4 litre in leading speed hill climbs.
