Vintage Bentleys come to town

THE VRYHEID Vintage Car Club hosted the 8th International Vintage Bentley Tour of South Africa on Saturday. The Tour stopped in at the Club’s new clubhouse at Cecil Emmett Park, and were welcomed to “Freedom City” by the Club’s President, Cassie Lourens, and treated to a light finger lunch.

Cassie said that the tour cars were a sight that Vryheid would never see again. There were 18 Bentleys dating from 1922 to 1930, and one from 1934. Bentleys need to have been built before the end of 1930 to warrant the title “Vintage”.

The cars are now owned by people living in Britain, Australia, Ireland, America, Switzerland and South Africa. The foreign cars were shipped to Durban from where the tour started, and the tour will end in Cape Town where the foreigners will be re-embarked and shipped home. The tour takes three weeks.

The Bentleys are beautiful old automobiles, varying from 3 to 6.5 litres, and with four to eight cylinders, set in a straight configuration.