1950 Bentley Mk VI Drophead

We believe 57 examples of the Bentley Mark VI Drophead Coupé with Park Ward coachwork were built.

These bespoke vehicles featured lightweight, corrosion-resistant aluminium panels.

Of the 57 built, just 45 were in RHD configuration and intended for the British marketplace, which makes this stunningly elegant car exceptionally rare.

The chassis was built on April 1950 and delivered to Park Ward’s Willesden works where the exquisite drophead body was made and fitted. The car was completed in July 1950 and delivered with a metallic grey exterior finish, grey leather trim and black hood.

We understand that the car’s first registration was KON 1.

Unusually, it was specified from new with an electrically powered hood; something that momentarily confused the folks at our HQ, who weren’t expecting to find a powered hood on a 1950 car and were initially at something of a loss as to how to get the roof up or down.

The vendor purchased the car from a gentleman in Canterbury, who was just the car’s third owner, in June 2016.

A good deal of the heavy lifting on the car had been carried out by the Canterbury owner, and much of it through Ghost Motor Works Ltd of Kent, from whom the vendor purchased the car and whose services he continued to use for the car’s upkeep, repair and maintenance.

In the course of the vendor’s 19-or-so years of ownership the car has been a much-loved and very well used part of the family.

He has some 20 or so other fine classics, but chose this one for a 2,000-mile round-trip to the South of France some years ago and also found that, of all the cars in his collection, it was the quietly luxurious Bentley that had the most effective calming influence when used as a conveyance for his new-born son in 2016.

In more recent years the car has lived a fairly quiet and sedentary life in a warm, dry storage space. The car’s upkeep and maintenance has been entrusted to the mechanic who takes care of the vendor’s collection.

We have driven the car and can attest that it starts promptly, purrs into quiet, orderly mechanical action without argument or clamour, handles perfectly well for one so large, stops when asked to do so, and is generally a pleasure to drive.

To say this majestic Bentley has presence would be something of an understatement.

Roof up or down, its grand but elegant silhouette makes a statement that’s hard to ignore.

The bodywork is straight, true and devoid of any significant dinks, dents, creases, ripples or folds that shouldn’t be there.

The wheels are in decent fettle, save for a rather wobbly and rattle-inducing hub cap on the o/s/f wheel, and the matching Bridgestone V-Steel tyres look to have a good deal of tread left on them but there are a few cracks in evidence and they may now be a little long in the tooth.

The black paintwork is slightly more of a curate’s egg; good in parts, less so in others.

There’s the odd patch of blistered paint on the o/s/f wing and a small chunk of metal chewed out of the inner lip of the o/s/f wheel-arch; a split to the metal in the sill just ahead of the o/s/r wheel; some splits to the paint on the bonnet and a couple more on the n/s/f wing; some micro-blistering to the paint just below the windscreen; a tiny spot of blistering at the top of the nearside door; some bubbling at both ends of the rear valance behind the bumper; some blistering on the bodywork where it sits between the bases of the o/s/f wheel-arch and the door; some scuffing and previous repairs where the doors have been catching slightly on the edges of the rear wings; and, apart from that, there’s just a pretty standard number and distribution of various light scratches and stone chips to be found here, there and elsewhere.

It's worth remembering that when we use words like ‘blistering’, we’re talking about aluminium panels, not steel, so corrosion of the ferrous oxide type is not the issue.

The brightwork is good throughout and there’s no foxing, tarnishing or pitting to speak of.

The hood is in good order and powers up and down as intended, albeit at a charmingly glacial pace.

At the time of writing, the offside headlight and indicator have downed tools and refused to work.

Otherwise, the lights, lenses, badging and other exterior fixtures and fittings are all in very decent condition.

This being the interior of a Bentley of a certain age, you can rest assured that everything’s been done in the best possible taste and using the finest materials.

The black leather upholstery, dark red carpets, and rich and glossy woodwork combine to create a warm and inviting ambience that you simply wouldn’t find in a modern car.

The black leather seats are comfortable and supportive, front and back, and signs of wear are limited to a few light creases here, the odd blemish there, and a couple of scuffs to the top layer elsewhere.

The lining of the hood is in good order, as are the door cards, mats and carpets.

The exception is the carpeting in the boot, which looks to have succumbed to the attentions of members of the Lepidoptera family.

The wood on and around the dashboard and elsewhere is generally very good, although there are a couple of cracks adjacent to the glove compartments on both sides.

We tried and failed to open the passenger glove compartment, but we’re more than happy to admit that the fault may lie with us, not the car, and that a more practised hand might fare better.

The steering wheel and other controls all look good to us and, as far as we’re aware, all buttons, knobs, switches, levers, gauges and dials do what they’re asked to do in a timely, faithful and accurate manner.

Carpets aside, the boot is as impressive as the rest of it and contains a spare wheel, a jack and some tools.

Opening the boot lid requires you to have forearms like Popeye, such is its considerable gravitas.

The engine bay looks to be reassuringly clean, dry, tidy and everything appears to be in its right and proper place.

Even the original torch is still there, clipped into its customary place atop the bulkhead.

The undersides of the car seem sound, solid and strong. There are a few spots of rust and a touch of flaking here and there, but nothing we’ve seen has given us any cause to tut, frown or otherwise question the car’s character or structural integrity.

The car comes with a decent wad of bills, invoices and receipts covering work done during and well before the vendor’s tenure.

It is also accompanied by an HPI report, a V5C, copies of original sales invoices, build sheets outlining the car’s original specification and options, and what looks to be its original Bentley handbook featuring a frontispiece from the car’s delivery dealer, Jack Barclay of Hanover Square.

This magnificent car captures a moment in time, as ably illustrated by the fact that this is a 1950 car with an electrically powered hood.

Bespoke, hand-built by Park Ward and aesthetically harking back to pre-war designs and a bygone age of care-free motoring, underneath the skin it is a product of emergent post-war technologies born of the need for the British motor industry to re-tool and reinvent itself.

This super-rare Bentley Mk VI Park Ward Drophead, then, is a car that sits at a historical cusp and, to our mind, it hits a sweet-spot between nascent modernity and the charm of the archaic.

This particular example is in very good mechanical, dynamic and aesthetic condition and has served as a much-loved family car for the best part of two decades.

We confidently predict that it will give its next owner many years of pedigree motoring pleasure.

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £50,000 - £70,000.

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at THE MARKET HQ in South Oxfordshire. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays (apart from Bank Holidays) between 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. To make a booking, please use the ‘Enquire About This Vehicle’ button on the listing. Feel free to ask any questions, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.