EXP2 uses a Humber chassis and similarities are clear in front axle B
ritain was still recovering from the devastation of war in the autumn of 1919. Yet in a small garage off Baker Street,
London, a group of men were creating what was to become a legend in the annals of motoring. One of the finest and best known of sporting and racing cars was being developed. The men were WO Bentley, Frank Burgess, who had been chief designer and racing driver at Humber, draughtsman Harry Varley and Clive Gallop, a racing driver and engine designer. A massive number of articles and theories have been published about the experimental Bentley cars made by WO Bentley and how he managed to design and produce a whole new car from scratch in less than a year. Research over the years has been done, not least by Bill Boddy, Tim Houlding, archivist of the Bentley Drivers Club, Kenneth Neve, as well as Brian Demaus and John Tarring both of the Humber Register and many others.
In 1914, Humber had many successes in trials and competition and decided to enter a team of three cars into the Isle of Man TT race. These TT cars were purpose built by the factory. As well as being Chief Designer, FT Burgess was also a driver and competed in the TT in Car number 2, the other cars being driven by WG Tuck and S Wright. Humber are known to have also built a number of spares for the TT cars. Although no documentary evidence has been found, Humber also probably built a spare TT chassis as this was a very different design to standard chassis. Another competitor in this TT was WO in a DFP. None of the Humber cars finished the race, all retiring with mechanical problems. However, Tuck’s TT car was supposedly the most powerful of the three and he successfully raced this car later that year, proving the potential of the design.
Aero development Prior to World War 1 and before deciding to go it alone, WO was working and racing with the French car company, DFP, whose engines would overheat dramatically in competition. WO realised this was mainly due to the cast iron pistons used which were heavy and had poor heat dissipation properties, so he started to work on the problem. Experiments with lighter magnesium pistons had ended up with the pistons ‘disappearing down the exhaust pipe’. Ordinary aluminium would not stand the temperatures and stresses involved but WO thought that if he could develop a strong, heat resistant alloy of aluminium then that might work. He did and it did. An alloy of 88% aluminium and 12% copper provided the necessary qualities and WO
went on to achieve many racing successes with his new idea incorporated in DFP cars, which he tried to keep secret for as long as possible.
Then came WW1 and the need for fighter planes. Over in France, British planes were fitted with French Clerget engines which had a very limited life of 15 hours or less due to overheating. This caused the British Government to get somewhat worried, so they called for help. WO stepped in as he knew exactly what the problem was and how to cure it. He fitted the Clerget engines with aluminium pistons and redesigned the cooling system to solve the problem.
The next step was for him to develop the Bentley Rotary engines (BR 1&2) using, of course, aluminium pistons and in 1916 the Humber factory in Coventry was chosen as one of the manufacturing sites. The Humber workers were delighted as, up until then, their war efforts had been confined to making mobile kitchens and military bicycles. Making proper engines was a much better use of their skills. It was here that WO and Burgess started working together and became firm friends, although they had already met on the racing circuits.
A new car
After the war ended, WO asked Burgess to join him in the development of a new type of high performance car and the rest is history, but not quite! WO developed his engine, with aluminium pistons and many other novel features, in a mews workshop off Baker Street along with Harry Varley and Clive Gallop as well as Burgess. When it was first fired up in October 1919,
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2019 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 23
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