Barnato at the wheel of Old Number 1, the Bentley Speed 6 that he and Sir Henry Birkin drove to victory at Le Mans in 1929 for the second of his three consecutive victories for Bentley at La Sarthe.
Photo: Bentley
Woolf Barnato is the man with a perfect score. He entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and won it three times: in 1928, 1929 and 1930, driving his own beloved Bentley cars. A record that still stands today, despite many attempts to break it over the last 80 years.
In fact, Bentleys dominated Le Mans from 1924 until 1930, winning the race five times out of seven. Ettore Bugatti famously described the large, rather crude looking cars as “the fastest trucks in the world.” That was only sour grapes, though, because although his cars competed in the very first Le Mans in 1923, a Bugatti did not win the race until 14 years later, driven by French Resistance heroes Robert Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille.
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