The gorgeous Bentley 1953 La Sarthe R Type is entirely the design of Britain’s Bensport Ltd.
The body’s completely new, and is built on top of a legit Bentley R-Type Continental chassis, so in many respects it’s very much an old classic Bentley. Clearly, it’s a work of art.
Bentley, of course, has a storied history at Le Mans, but took a hiatus that included the 1950s. Bensport penned the La Sarthe (as in Circuit De La Sarthe in France, home to the 24 Hours of Le Mans) as an exercise to see what a mid-century Bentley race car would’ve looked like. The body is nothing but hand-formed aluminum, formed to its own design.
As such, it’s a fastback coupe with two different gas caps, which was the style of race cars of the day. Under the custom skin, it’s an original chassis that’s been modified both for handling and reliability purposes; and while they’re re-assembling everything, they also toss in conveniences like power steering and rear parking sensors to make sure you don’t hurt that beautiful bodywork.
Inside it’s a sea of leather, wood, and aluminum. Modernities like heated seats and rear windows, central locking, and air conditioning make the La Sarthe less of a museum piece and more of a car you’ll be compelled to drive every day.
This car was the famed Embiricos Bentley that had been built at the original Bentley works at Derby just before the beginning of the Second World War in 1938. The Embiricos Bentley was made to order for a Greek gentleman named André Embiricos who was a keen racing driver living in Paris. The coachwork for the car was designed by Georges Paulin who worked for coachbuilder Pourtout Carrossier. With the outbreak of the war André Embiricos sold his car to H.S.F. Hay in 1939. The car survived the war and in 1949 H.S.F. Hay entered the car in the Le Mans 24 Hour motor race, in which it managed sixth place.
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