I was completely blown away by Martin Overington’s performance at Le Mans Classic 2016. It was late and I was sitting in the grandstand on the pit straight. I had never seen a vintage Bentley driven at that speed before. The glowing red of the exhaust as it exited the manifold set the tone!
Shortly afterwards, this advert was cleverly published by William Medcalf’s team.
For those who don’t know him, Martin Overington is a passionate English entrepreneur and collector of cars, all cars! His toy box is a breathtaking collection of classic and prewar cars, F1s, Group C cars and…more. Martin also owns the Hôtel de France near Le Mans, famous for having been the place where drivers rested between two rounds of the 24-hour race. He is also the head of Classic GT, which offers pleasant drives in Europe in vintage or modern cars.
In addition to driving his Blower (which was sold some time ago) at breakneck speed on many circuits, he also made headlines when he came to the Circuit des Remparts in Angouleme (France) towing a Porsche 962 with his… Bentley Blower!
Martin was keen to go to Angouleme with his 1929 Bentley 4.5 Blower, fresh from the Revival at Goodwood, but also with his 1988 Porsche 962. It was difficult to drive both at the same time. It would have been too long and impractical to make two return trips from London, and as he had meanwhile accepted my friend Jean-Marc Laffont’s offer to exhibit his 962, there was no turning back! There was no choice but to go with both cars: the solution came quite naturally. To “kill two birds with one stone” Martin decided to fit a tow bar to the Bentley to make his way down to the circuit in France. He hooked up his trailer before loading the Porsche onto it. End of the story? Not really.
Shortly after this incredible journey, Martin admitted that there was certainly ‘some’ provocation in the challenge. When asked, ‘Is the Bentley a good tow vehicle thanks to its supercharger?’, his answer was mixed: “The brakes on the trailer are drastically better than the brakes on the Bentley which makes stopping ‘interesting.’ The Porsche is also considerably wider than the Bentley meaning I constantly have to watch what’s happening behind when driving through the small villages in France. Overtaking is terrifying and lots of the driving has been in torrential rain making everything even more terrifying!”
Some time later, we found the fiery Martin at the wheel of his Bentley Blower on his way to Silverstone. And this time, there was no Porsche 962 on a trailer, but a Bentley Continental GT3!
Yes you can do anything with a vintage Bentley!