Which car was best. 1920s shoot-out
In the mid 20s these 2 cars unlike today were in competition with each other.
[source](CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER)
Today one manufacturer charges hundreds of thousands for some of the most desirable cars made and the other makes crap cars (I have owned one).
A Bentley v a Vauxhall
The Bentley here is a 1928 4 1/2 litre producing 110HP @ 4000 rpm. When new it cost around £1500 although a bit like modern cars you got a base model at £1024 which had no body and then you added extras like a body type.
In today's prices around £80000.
The Vauxhall is a 30/98 made in Dec 1925 with an up-rated OE engine of 4225cc and producing 120HP @ 3300rpm. This one cost around £1600 new.
The Bentley could manage 85 mph and had a 0-60 time of 29.0 seconds.
The Vauxhall did 80mph and managed 0-60 in 29.8 seconds. However this model of the car was the first British production car (if you call 313 production) to exceed 100mph.
The cars although being powerful had quite slow acceleration due to using unsynchronised gearboxes. The Bentley had the best. They were even worse at stopping. The Vauxhall had cable operated front and transmission brakes and the big handle on the side put the rear brakes on. The Bentley had similar brakes. The Bentley changed to hydraulic brakes in 1929 but these were very unreliable.
Both cars did about 15mpg. Just out of interest in 1925 in England it became illegal to race on the public highway. It was also not usual to test cars 0-60 as very few cars could make 60mph and this test didn't get used until 1935. The normal acceleration test was a 10-30 test.
Today the Bentley sells for around £180000 and of the 720 made about half are still around. The blower Bentley is a supercharged version and sells for about £4million. (It also does over 100mph)
The Vauxhall is a more rare car and is valued at £350000.
The scruffy one is probably worth a lot less but it is road worthy and 96 years old.
I've always had a fascination for old and rare cars. The older and rarer, the better.
Next post I will do on the rarest or most valuable cars I looked at over last year.
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What is interesting that in 1982, I had a 1979 Golf 1, 1100, that could out perform both cars, if you look at today's small cars, the Golf is again very slow, in comparison. Technology changed dramatically in the last few years.