Bentley Motors, Continental GT/Flying Spur, Brooklands, Arnage, Azure

Today Bentley is a luxury car for those who have enough digits on the accounts to meet the requirements of six-figure prices. The Bentley brand offers comfort, luxury, elegance, and customization that not everyone can afford. Bentley is a unique brand that has produces partially hand-assembled cars accompanied by ultramodern technologies. This combination of traditions and technologies has become the essence of Bentley.

The company's father, Walter Owen Bentley, began its career as a railroad engineering apprentice. But soon he started racing via motorcycle circuit. During the war Walter Bentley dealt with aircrafts and that was the underlying cause that determined his idea of establishing an automobile factory of his own.

Eventually in 1919 Bentley Motors was born in England and two years later the first Bentley models saw the light. They were the 3-litre Bentleys. Walter Bentley was a racer in heart and he was aimed at manufacturing sport cars. His racing cars immediately became winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

But that did not last long. Bentley Motors, Ltd was a privately founded company and Walter Bentley did not have either a lot of money on hand nor a good reliable sponsor. The Great Depression damaged British manufacturers greatly and Bentley Motors did no escape the common lot.

By that time Bentley has already decided to expand the production and pay more attention to the models that can attract more customers. Therefore luxurious Bentleys appeared and became the powerful rivals of Rolls-Royces.

Gripped in a financial vice Bentley had to sell the company to Rolls-Royce. Bentley himself worked at Rolls-Royce for some time. The cars produced during that period were a fusion of sporting Bentley and luxurious Rolls-Royces and even got the name Rolls-Bentley. But unlike their predecessors, Rolls-Bentleys were no more the winners of prestigious races.

World War II was another plight that almost devastated the company. But step by step Bentleys have regained their reputation. In the 1980s Bentley experienced another boom of popularity and increased sales.

In 1998 BMW began supplying both Rolls-Royce and Bentley with its engines. But at the same year Volkswagen unexpectedly decided to acquire both brands. BMW and Volkswagen become the competitors that both aimed at acquiring Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Finally the German automobile giants made an agreement under which the Rolls-Royce name was sold to BMW and The Bentley name, factory and assets and handed over to Volkswagen.