Bentley marks 90th birthday of the Derby Bentley

Bentley Motors has welcomed 60 Bentleys of the 'Derby era' to Crewe to mark the 90^th anniversary of the Bentley 3.5-litre, commonly known simply as the 'Derby Bentley'.

The meeting was organised by The Silent Sports Car Club - a U.K.-based owners club dedicated to the Derby Bentley - and saw more than 100 guests invited for a tour of the Bentley campus, as well as its newly refurbished Heritage Collection before paying a visit to the Mulliner workshops.

Members of the The Silent Sports Car Club were invited to tour the Crewe site to mark the 90^th anniversary of the Bentley Derby

Bentley's own Derby Bentley, a 1934 3.5-litre with coachwork by Thrupp and Maberley, was on also display for the guests in the newly opened Lineage area, joining eight pre-war cars of the Heritage Collection. Bentley also displayed one of the crown jewels of Bentley's fleet - the one-of-one 1939 MkV Corniche, recently re-registered and returned to the road for the first time in 84 years.

The Derby era saw Bentley producing up to 500 cars per year, with the 3.5-litre followed by the improved 4.5-litre and together representing the first Bentleys produced under Rolls-Royce ownership. This period of Bentley history also produced some important one-offs - the streamlined 'Embiricos' coupe of 1938 and the recently restored 1939 MkV Corniche. These two cars together helped shaped the design DNA that sculpted the Bentleys of the 1950s and even inspired the original and current Continental GTs.

The Derbys were more refined and more agile than their Cricklewood predecessors while costing less, and so reached a wider clientele than any previous Bentley.