BENTLEY L V8 RETIRES

AFTER AN extraordinary run of 61 years, Bentley is retiring its L-series V8, a design debuted in 1959 and then shared with RollsRoyce.

It launched with the S2 saloon and contemporary Continental, at the time providing 180hp, which the company then described as “adequate”. The then new design had been required with the growing demands for airconditioning and power steering, in addition to shunting a fairly hefty car.

Displacing 6230cc, it ran aluminium block and heads, overhead valves and a compression ratio of 8:1 and was fed by twin carburettors. Typical of the breed, it was a fairly understressed unit.

By the time of its retirement, it had grown to be known as the 6 and three-quarter powerplant (thanks to a capacity increase in 1971) and had sprouted first one then two turbos. It was producing something over 500hp and up to a whopping 1100Nm of torque.

Bentley says 36,000 were built across the decades. You’d like to think that Jack Phillips, the senior engine designer back in the fifties, would be pleased to know his team’s handiwork lasted this long.