An interesting car is coming up for sale in the Historics At Brooklands sale on Saturday August 20th. After we have been around old cars for a long enough period of time, we eventually begin to form an idea of what our dream car might look like.The 'Ian Pitney Special' is just such a car. Ian Pitney's father started construction in 1973 using a 1934 Bentley 3½ litre chassis and Ian took over the project in 2002. They have been making aluminium panels using traditional techniques for years and are skilled at turning flat aluminium panels into perfect curves for the pre and post-war cars that pass through their workshop.
But in order to achieve that perfect profile, the seating position was moved back a little giving plenty of room for the large engine and thus producing a long bonnet to contrast the neat tail fashioned after the Monza Alfa. Wings give a nod to Delage design and the wide-bore outside exhaust produces that throaty roar enjoyed by the Bentley Boys back in the day.
The red leather bucket seats look well inside the beautiful black coachwork and the proper Bentley instruments and steering wheel finish off the cockpit perfectly.
The other well-proportioned sports car we like is the 1922 AC 12/40 boat-tailed sports with Anzani engine - one of just two known examples known. Rare and desirable.
Two very different cars, but we could easily find space for both and enjoy the two different styles of sporting motoring.
Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy Historics At Brooklands.