20/24 #19: Bentley 3 Litre Speed “Old Number 7”
Chosen by: Lewis Fox
Best finish: 1st, 1927
Team: Bentley Motors
Driven by: Dudley Benjafield, Sammy Davis

It’s 1927, and you’re racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Bentley. You’re driving in the #3 car, known as ‘Old Number 7’ since it had raced as #7 in 1926, crashing out of third place in sight of the line. It’s wild. “Safety” is a word associated with the matches you use to light your pipe, and it is certainly not a word associated with either your machinery, nor the barely-paved country roads you’re racing on.

“This period of Le Mans is pure endurance,” says Lewis Fox. He’s recently stepped away from Formula One to work with Kingsbury Racing, an engineering firm specialising in vintage racing Bentleys. Quite a contrast, and a choice made out of passion. “A pair of drivers, no support from pit crews, on a track that was still multiple surface, and in pretty terrifying machinery.”

Night has fallen, and you come around a bend to find the road in front of you blocked by two of your mates, in the other two Bentleys. They’ve crashed into each other and both are out on the spot. You collide with one of them, and your car is pretty heavily damaged, with a bent axle, buggered headlight and smashed fender.

“The story of ‘Old Number 7’ tells everything that makes Bentleys, and the drivers who raced them, incredible,” Fox continues.

Your machine is still going, and you’re still going, so you put the crash behind you and soldier on. A torch is strapped to your car so you can see, ish, and almost 20 hours later you are the winner of the 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans. By 20 laps.

“The Bentley story is one of the shortest lived success stories around. It was a business that spanned just over a decade in its proper form, but managed to conquer the greatest endurance race ever multiple times.”

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