Cars in Court

I was interested to see Michael Hay’s recent book about Bentley – `Old Number One’, which describes, race by race, the Le Mans and Brooklands career of this famous Speed Six, in which Clive Dunfee lost his life.

The car was the subject of a memorable court case in 1990 when Middlebridge Scimitar decided not to buy it from Mr Ed Hubbard for some £10 million. That case caused me anguish, because I could not see how this Bentley could be called the original Speed Six in Le Mans trim, and I gave my reasons in Motor Sport, asking for my article to be shown to the lawyers. It wasn’t, and when the Judge awarded the case to Mr Hubbard I expected to be led away to the Tower at any moment. Fortunately the matter then evaporated and I still walk free…

This detailed book tells much about ‘Old No 1’, which remains the property of the TSB since Middlebridge collapsed as a result of the case. You may already have seen many of the pictures, but these have long informative captions. A very interesting, nostalgic history of a great sports car and an important period of racing. Two points: on page 80, the car Jack Dunfee is seen overtaking is a Salmson, not an Amilcar; and where is Mr Hubbard now? He was last seen in Columbia, I hear…