{"id":498325,"date":"2019-08-13T15:13:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T22:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=88535"},"modified":"2024-12-27T01:37:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T01:37:53","slug":"the-bentley-boysand-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-bentley-boysand-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bentley Boys\u2026and Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yes, girls, too. In fact, if it hadn\u2019t been for one\u2014Mildred Mary Bruce\u2014the famous Blower Bentley could have stayed an idea rolling around in Sir Henry \u201cTim\u201d Birkin\u2019s head. Bruce was even more daredevil than most of the Boys. One of her minor\u00a0<\/em>accomplishments was in 1929, when she single-handedly drove a lumbering great 4\u00bd -liter Bentley non-stop around the Montlh\u00e9ry circuit just outside Paris at an average\u00a0<\/em>of 89 mph for 24 hours to establish a world record, which was never beaten by any other woman. One of her many major\u00a0<\/em>achievements was, in 1930, when she flew solo around the world \u2013 after just 40 hours of flying lessons!<\/p>\n

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The Bentley Boys, circa 1929. Photo: Bentley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boys? Most were rich. There was the heir to a Kimberley diamond mine fortune, a highly talented steeplechase jockey, a Harley Street bacteriologist, a journalist and painter, the heir to a Nottingham lace manufacturing fortune, the inevitable \u201cprofessional\u201d playboy, a couple of aviators, a submariner and even a pearl fishing magnate. On last count there were 16 Bentley Boys \u2013 but there were almost certainly more who came and went \u2013 whose extraordinary courage and driving skill won the marque the 24 Hours of Le Mans no fewer than five times between 1924 and 1930.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n