B125Gp started life in Paris, ordered by a M. Jacques Faure, 160 avenue Victor Hugo, who bought the car from Franco-Britannic auto, the Paris concessionaire, and who placed the order for the coachwork with Carrosserie A. Vanvooren in Courbevoie (just outside of Paris).   She spent the war years behind a false wall in a barn on a farm that Faure owned near Rambouillet.  In 1952 she was sold to a dealer in Paris who sold her on to a Brit who was working for Columbia Pictures in California, where she was then shipped.  Over the years, the usual story of neglect and decay played out and she was, in 1996, a derelict and was destined for the scrap yard when acquired by the Real Car Company in Wales and shipped to them.  Purchased by a fellow in N. England who made a limited start at restoration, he sold it to me in mid-1998.  I had her sent to Classic Restorations (Scotland) Ltd. In Alyth, Perthshire, whereupon a full and total nut and bolt restoration commenced, including the creation of a whole new ash body frame.  Though a slow process,  when completed in 2002 she went to the Bentley Drivers Club Annual Concours (that year at Arbury Hall, near Coventry) and garnered Best Derby Closed Car and the Bill Cook Trophy for Best Derby Bentley. 

She has been on  several long tours, after being delivered to Baltimore in the US, then driven up to Boston and then along out to Chicago where she now resides.  She runs as well as she looks.  She has been featured in Neil Frazer’s book, “Bentley Beauty” and can be seen on the Classic Restorations website as well.  Unusual features include leather covered wood trim interior (typical of some of the Continental coachbuilders), and the pillarless feature.   The rack on the top of the boot is for golf clubs.  Colors are Sage Green over Velvet Green, with Camel Tan interior.

David C. Seidman

Winnetka, Illinois. USA