Bentley Old Mother Gun

Year: 1927
Power: 340 PS
Capacity: 8000 ccm

Mother Gun is not just one of the 3024 Bentley cars manufactured between 1919 and 1931 in the London district of Criclewood - rather it's probably the most famous of all.

In fact, the chassis ST 3001, completed in June 1927, was the first 4.5 litres model and its nickname goes back to the Bentley boy Woolf Barnato who, appropriate to the chassis number, rhymed: S-T-Three-O-O-One - Old Mother Gun!

A few days after completion Mother Gun, leading the field, was involved in the infamous White House Corner Crash where seven cars crashed into each other.

In the following year the car, which then was painted in dark green, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the drivers Woolf Barnato and Bernhard Rubin.

In 1934, agter several ownership changes and some minor appearances, it received the 6.5 litres six cylinder engine of the Speed Six which had won the fifth Le Man title for Bentley in 1930.

For the Brooklands competitions it was afterwards converted to a single seater and in 1936 / 1937 its new owner Robert Jackson equipped the car with the current unpainted aluminium body.

In 1937, in this shape Mother Gun circled the Brooklands oval with an average speed of 134,97 mph, corresponding to 217 km/h, with the drivers Kit Baker-Carr and George Harvey Noble.