Legends: Bentley Speed 8

Although known as a builder of over-the-top luxury cars for the rich and famous, Bentley’s illustrious motorsports history is no less significant. It all began in 1919 when Walter Owen Bentley, a young railroad engineering apprentice and racing enthusiast, formed his own company. His high-performance cars quickly established the “Bentley Boy” as contenders on the European racing scene. In fact, they won the yearly and prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans (France) endurance race four times between 1923 and 1931. Bentley actually began building luxury cars to help pay for his racing efforts. The Great Depression of the 1930s, followed by the Second World War, devastated the British automobile industry and Bentley fell upon hard times. His company was eventually absorbed by Rolls Royce. By the 1960s, the Bentley name was in the hands of Volkswagen. Building on subsidiary Audi’s endurance-racing success, VW was able to put Bentley back in the Le Mans winner’s circle (2002), more than 70 years after the last victory. To do it, the EXP Speed 8, capable of 215 mph and beyond, used a 600-horsepower twin-turbocharged Audi V8 affixed to a carbon-fiber chassis. With the “Winged B” on its bonnet and traditional British racing green covering the body, the Speed 8 ushered in a whole new era of “Bentley Boys.” The drought, at least for the short term, appears to be over.