Bentley won Le Mans in 1924, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 2003. It had pulled out of racing after its 1930 success for the rest of the century but its pre-War exploits are still much revered. So much so that the company is producing a batch of ‘Continuation’ versions of its Speed Six, the model that won Le Mans in 1929 and 1930.

The first of these is known as ‘Car Zero’ and will be retained by the factory. It will undergo endurance testing prior to the build of 12 customer cars, all of which have been pre-sold. Bentley unveiled Car Zero at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held at Goodwood Estate in the UK in mid July.

Bentley reports that its Continuation Speed Six is based on original drawings, some 80% of which have been tracked down. Those are supported by mechanics’ notes found in its archive. It adds that the surviving ‘Old Number Three’ and its own GU409 Speed Six Le Mans cars provided further reference. The Continuation cars have improvements instigated between the 1929 and 1930 Le Mans races.

The Speed Six I6 had bore of 100 mm and stroke of 140 mm for 6597 cc. It had four valves per cylinder operated by a single overhead camshaft and used a combined cylinder head and cylinder block that was cast in iron.

In road trim this I6 used a single Smiths five-jet carburettor, twin magnetos and a compression ratio of 4.4:1 to attain 147 bhp at 3500 rpm. The racing version had twin SU carburettors, a compression ratio of 6.1:1 and an output of 200 bhp at 3500 rpm.

Bentley notes that over 600 components comprise today’s revived Speed Six engine, all of which have been faithfully recreated. It adds that the these Continuation cars are made using the same processes as the original.

Each Continuation Speed Six is built from scratch by hand in the Mulliner workshop in Crewe, England, the complete vehicle taking ten months to create. Initial tests of the Continuation engine indicate a peak power of 205 bhp at 3500 rpm; within 5 bhp of the output of the 1930 Le Mans race engine 93 years ago.