Experienced by Kimatni D. Rawlins
The visionaries at Bentley Motors absolutely loved racing and the unstoppable machines required for motorsports success. To let me vicariously live through that legendary era from a century ago, the PR team gave me a ride in “Smoky,” a 1926 Bentley Super Sports that was visiting the United States for the first time in its history.
Interestingly, only 18 units were built; I experienced chassis number 12, which featured an upgraded, high-output 4.5-liter engine fitted in 1934. Yet, it started life with a 3-liter 4-cylinder engine and was given the nickname Smoky for obvious reasons. With the 4.5-liter, the Super Sports miraculously topped 100 mph, an incredible speed back then. This unit is the same breed of engine that powered Bentley to victory at Le Mans in 1928. Bentley mechanics also lowered the chassis and streamlined the body, turning a road car into a weapon. Rolling on tall, thin Dunlop tires (off the shelf), my driver showed me Smoky’s handling and power on the roads around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
It took finesse climbing up and then sliding down into the narrow cockpit where the large steering wheel sits on the right side; the brake and accelerator pedals are inverted; and the shifter (a conventional H-pattern 3-speed) is placed outside the cockpit entirely, worked by a lever mounted on the driver’s right flank like a rifle bolt. Once we got going, the prewar Bentley drove like a go-kart with the front wheels decisively steering the long racecar exactly where my driver needed it to be. In its heyday, Smoky achieved a string of wins through the 1930s as it thundered around Brooklands, the banked track outside London, hunting records and eating bigger, more powerful cars for breakfast. My own encounter with Smoky was domesticated, a tour on the public roads outside Laguna Seca, but it was enough to taste what a Brooklands run must have felt like.
Up front, small windshields barely break the air for the driver and passenger, leading you to wonder how racers endured long sets with just goggles and a leather helmet (often called crash helmets or racing bonnets, similar to aviator helmets of the era). You will also find a full cockpit of dials built for a machine that never once pretended to be gentle. Originally, the coachwork (outer panels, fenders, doors, and overall shape that sit atop the chassis) came from Jarvis & Sons, Ltd. Today, if replacement pieces and parts are required Bentley maintains an array of suppliers that can fabricate them.
It was cool to roll down memory lane with the 1926 Bentley Super Sports and reimagine what it must have felt like to represent the risk-taking Bentley Boys and their notorious racing antics.
