1929 Bentley Speed Six Saloon
Chantilly Art & Elégance - 29 & 30 June, 2019

I’m quite sure Wayne McLaren is correct in stating that the ‘mystery’ had been solved back in the early 1980’s -– although I, myself, only heard of it via Clare Hay’s research for Bruce McCaw -– however it’s not entirely true to say that Captain Barnato (and, of course, Dale Bourn) departed from Cannes station at precisely the same time as the Blue Train.

During the research for my painting I managed to obtain a copy of Woolf Barnato’s much-belated (28th March 1946) reminiscence of his ‘run,’ from The Bentley Driver’s Clubmagazine. Amongst many other nuggets from this priceless ‘first-person-source’ he makes it clear that after receiving word that the train had departed the station, he and Bourn finished their drinks in the bar of The Carlton Hotel and departed, from ‘there,’ at just after 5:54pm...and, for the record, there was NO actual wager!

He also writes of getting back to England “...In my saloon speed six” which just goes to show that the mystery solved itself way back in 1946 !!!"

"Chassis no. HM2855 is frequently referred to as the Blue Train Bentley. This is incorrect notwithstanding it being seen in most paintings inspired by the 'event'. I accompanied a friend on a visit to Mortimer, an auto book dealer in England in 1982. We asked him why he had sold HM2855 — ostensibly the Blue Train Bentley — which he had bought from a dealer (at that time, in deplorable condition). He said when he researched the car prior to restoring it, he found that it was built after the race, so it could not have been HM2855 car in the race. He therefore sold it before restoring it.

So the identity of the real Blue Train Bentley was established in 1982, many years ahead of the publication of this detail in Hay's book in 1997. But the belief that it was the 'Blue Train Bentley' persisted. Surely others would have figured this out but no public announcements were made.

The real Bentley that did race the Blue Train left the station in France at the same time as the train but at no time were the Bentley and the train within sight of each other at the beginning, end or anywhere in between. Barnato beat the train to the London station but then drove on before the train arrived.

So much has been made over something that had been simply overlooked. All someone had to look at was what car Barnato owned at the time of the race. Instead they looked at the car that he owned after the race."

Blue Train artwork by Maskom Hart Productions shown in a video (Oil on canvas with paper stencil)
"I thought your readers might like to read / hear about my inaugural ‘Sight & Soundtrack’ music / artwork..." - Thomas Mark

Captain Joel Woolf Barnato meets Maestro Buddy Bregman in the first in an exclusive series of 16 'Sight & Soundtrack' contemporary artworks conceived & produced by Maskom Hart.

...TO CATCH AND PASS THE CANNES BLUE TRAIN !!!
Fuses the fictional contemporaneous reporting in a London journal of Bentley Motors Chairman and legendary "Bentley Boy," Captain Joel Woolf Barnato's typically audacious wager at the dinner table of The Carlton Hotel, on the evening of Wednesday 12th March 1930 ~ (that the following evening he and relief driver, Dale Bourn would set out and duly beat the iconic 'Blue Train,' home, in a head-to-head, cross-country race from Cannes to Calais/Boulogne { and onward to a London club } in his own, personal 6.5 litre Bentley 'Speed Six' formal-saloon) ~ with the heart-pounding, adrenalin-fuelled, kicking-swing of a high-octane, all-star, 18-piece Big-Band, thrillingly conducted in Hollywood CA by Buddy Bregman.

In short, the painting depicts “Bentley Boy,” Captain Joel Woolf Barnato & Dale Bourn’s legendary March 1930 Blue Train Race which has never been re-painted ‘correctly’ since Terrence Cuneo’s beautiful picture ‘Bentley v’s Blue Train’ was found to be factually incorrect on several counts by Bentley Historian Dr Clare Hay, back in 2006...

See Wikipedia entry for: ('Blue Train Races') and ('Woolf Barnato')
"After exhaustive factual research on both train & car – not least going back to an original 1946 written source c/o The Bentley Drivers Club Magazine – it is painted with more than a nod to both Hearst Publishing’s ‘Popular Mechanics’ covers and F.Gordon Crosby’s famed 1930’s British ‘Autocar’ illustrations...and incorporates various coded references to amongst others, Cole Porter; the instrumental ‘bridge’ of whose innovatively re-arranged song, “From This Moment On,” being what you hear playing on YouTube."

"Notwithstanding all of the above, and despite it being the genesis of every single BBC Television ‘Top Gear’ racing challenge since, Captain Barnato’s Blue Train Race was never given due prominence in the British press at the time, owing to the Daily Express’s apparent advertising arrangement with Rover!"

This 1929 Speed Six Bentley, owned by Bruce and Jolene McCaw, of Medina, is at the center of a recently solved automotive mystery about the "Blue Train Bentley." It will be on display Sunday, Sep. 7, 2007, at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance. (Photo by Roy Cobb)

Like most great tales of man and machine, the story of the "Blue Train Bentley" begins in a bar.

It was 1930. Bentley Motors Chairman Woolf Barnato was sitting in the Carlton Bar in Cannes, France, with his secretary, Dale Bourne. Over their glasses, they mused about whether Barnato's Speed Six Bentley could get to London before the reknowned Blue Train.

Barnato and Bourne left the bar and drove through the night. After 786 miles, they pulled into the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall at 3:30 p.m. — 15 minutes before the Blue Train reached its stop in Calais, on the France side of the English Channel. The train still had far to go, while the Speed Six had a new name: "The Blue Train Bentley."

But the story didn't end there. Over the years, another Bentley emerged that put in dispute which car truly deserved the moniker. After an Agatha Christie-worthy investigation, complete with service records and the fine-toothed findings of Bentley experts, the rightful "Blue Train Bentley" was only recently certified.

It wasn't the sexy, fastback Gurney Nutting coupe that raced through the night. The car's service record shows it didn't even pass the factory's final test until 10 weeks after the Blue Train run.

The true "Blue Train Bentley" is an unassuming, black, fabric-covered "saloon," or sedan, built by H.J. Mulliner in 1929. Barnato had owned it for a year and apparently loved it — he put over 16,000 miles on it in just under a year.

These photographs were taken at Retromobile Paris, 2006

Photographs were taken during Bentley 75th Anniversary Tour from Cannes to London in Oct. 2005.

This photograph was taken on Mar 08, 2003

Pebble Beach, 2001

"This is almost certainly the car Woolf Barnato really drove to beat the Blue Train in March 1930 — a 1930 Speed Six H. J. Mulliner Weymann saloon (BA2592), also owned by Bruce McCaw." — From the article 'The Real Blue Train Bentley' By Michael Hay (UK), Photography John W. de Campi

"I knew this car in 1972. It was owned by a friend I was at school with, William Sykes, from near Eltisley. He and his brother restored the car on their farm. My friend drove this car as my wedding car on June 2nd 1972. I'd lost all pictures of the car, but my daughter has just found them; I will forward as soon as I get them."

"As I mentioned in my previous communication (above), I had used this car for my wedding. Unfortunately I don't have the chassis number or engine number but like the latest comments on this car with this registration. I was surprised to see it with a coupe body. When my friend used it for my wedding car it was certainly a tourer body.

So as promised previously I now have the photo taken outside the church at Little Paxton, Cambs. of my wedding on 2nd June 1972."

"I was very surprised to see the above Bentley wearing a saloon body. A local man named Ian showed me some rather faded colour photos of his parents with two Bentleys in tourer garb -- one of which was UU 5999. The photos were probably taken in the early '60s."

"UU 5999 was owned by his uncle Barrie (although it was registered in Barrie's wife's name), some time in the 60's-70's. The pictures are said to have been taken outside a pub in Abbottsley that Barrie and his wife kept. The lady in red is Ian's mother. That's all Ian seems to know.

This car was owned by William Sykes from 1966 to 1999.

"The car as purchased in 1966."