Automotive designer Benjamin Knapp Voith pays tribute to the Bentley Boys with this superb Barnato Roadster concept designed during a 8-month internship at Bentley Motors. It's aim is to create a modern interpretation of what the Bentley Boys - those elite and adventurous gentlemen racers of the mid-1920s, who drove such monsters as the 4½ Litre Blower - would drive if they were alive today.
In honour of their memory, not to mention the Bentley Boys’ many race victories at Brooklands and four consecutive wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Knapp Voith named the concept the Barnato Roadster, after Woolf Barnato, an English financier who had made a fortune as a entrepreneur in South African diamond and gold mining. He was also a keen racing driver and one of the Bentley Boys; he achieved three consecutive wins out of three entries in the Le Mans 24 hours.
Based on the wheelbase of the Continental GT, the Barnato features an interesting asymmetrical seating arrangement with an optional passenger seat inspired by current LMP2 racers, a body made of carbon fibre, and would be powered by a modified version of the Audi S4′s V6.
Ben´s tribute was apparently not only inspired by Bentley´s early racers (the 1924 Bentley 3/8 'Hawkeye Special' especially, to our eyes), but also the R-Type Continental.
The end result is a stylish contemporary car with self-evident attention to detail, keeping the proportions and curves that make a vintage Bentley special. While to our eyes it seems a little too dainty to suit the 'fastest lorry in the world' image that Ettore Bugatti so famously coined, there's no doubting the design keeps drawing your eye back in.
Take the Blue Train to here for more info; a brief portfolio of Benjamin Knapp Voith's work here.
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