1925 Bentley 3-Litre Open Tourer (Vanden Plas-style re-body)

Ownership

1. 2022-04-10Auction sale
   Sold £120,000 (≈ $150K)

   Bonhams catalogue lot →

2. 1925 → 1935Factory delivery
   Guy Dutton

   partial documentation

   First registered owner; took delivery of the car new with HJ Mulliner coachwork. Retained the vehicle for approximately a decade before it left his hands.

3. 1935-05-11 →Acquisition unknown
   Brooklands Aviation, Sywell Aerodrome

   partial documentation

   Vehicle was converted into a fire tender during this custodianship; the logbook was amended to designate the car as a fire engine, and a period photograph exists documenting it in service from 1935.

4. 1953-07-21 →Acquisition unknown
   Bert Middlemas (Hornby Park Motors)

   partial documentation

   Acquired the car as a dealer; it subsequently passed through additional dealer hands before reaching private ownership.

5. 1956-07-01 →Private sale
   William Deane of Chester

   partial documentation
6. 1964-01-21 → 1964-02-18Acquisition unknown
   Henry Pasco of Wellesbourne

   partial documentation

   Brief period of ownership before the car moved on within weeks.

7. 1964-02-18 → 1965-02-01Acquisition unknown
   Reginald Booth

   partial documentation
8. 1965-02-01 → 1983-09-19Acquisition unknown
   John Henry Davidson

   partial documentation

   Long-term custodian who retained the vehicle for nearly two decades; the exact timing of the fire tender bodywork removal is unrecorded but may fall within or before this period.

9. 1983-09-19 → 1993-06-02Acquisition unknown
   Terence Dickie

   partial documentation

   A restoration to Vanden Plas-style open tourer configuration is understood to have occurred around this era; Dickie sold the car to the final pre-auction owner.

10. 1993-06-02 →Private sale
    Raymond Lippiatt

    full documentation

    Longstanding Rolls-Royce and Bentley enthusiast active in owners' and drivers' club communities; assembled the history file and provided a handwritten account of early ownership; car was last taxed in September 2020.

Competition

No competition history extracted from the catalogue.

Maintenance & restoration

1. 1935Modification
   Brooklands Aviation

   Original Allweather coachwork removed and the car converted into a fire tender for use at Sywell Aerodrome; logbook classification altered accordingly.

   Conversion date is recorded as 1935 per the logbook and photographic evidence.

2. 2006Service
   Elmdown Engineering

   Approximately 15 hours of maintenance and general servicing work carried out, as documented by an invoice in the history file.

   Invoice dated November 2006 retained in the car's history file.

3. —
   Bodywork

   Fire-tender body replaced with a Vanden Plas-style open tourer body; current finish is British Racing Green and Brooklands Green with black wire wheels and running boards.

   Precise date unknown; occurred at some point between 1935 and the restoration approximately 30 years before the catalogue date.

4. —
   Restoration

   Comprehensive restoration undertaken roughly three decades prior to cataloguing, resulting in the well-preserved appearance seen today, including a patinated black leather interior.

   Catalogue dated implicitly to the mid-2020s, suggesting restoration circa mid-1990s; no workshop named.