page_title: Blue Train Races
section_title: Bentley Speed Six
hierarchical_section_title: Blue Train Races / Bentley Speed Six
caption_attribution_description: Bentley 6½-litre 1929 Bentley Speed Six saloon, original body was by H J Mulliner Original coachwork Chassis BA2592 11ft 6 inches wheelbase Engine BA2594 Speed Six Reg UU 5999 source of info
context_page_description: The Blue Train Races were a series of record-breaking attempts between automobiles and trains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the Le Train Bleu, a train that ran between Calais and the French Riviera. The rationale to beat the train was to compare the contemporary automotive performance with locomotive dominance; to showcase recent progress achieved by cars regarding reliability, durability, speed and comfort; to promote the cars, their marques and the adventurous persona of their drivers; and to establish automobiles as a viable and aspirational mode of transport for the individual traveller.
context_section_description: In March 1930, at a dinner at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, talk around the table had swung round to the topic of motor cars; in particular to the advertisement by Rover claiming that its Light Six had gone faster than the famous "Le train bleu" express. Woolf Barnato, chairman of Bentley and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1928 and 1929, contended that just to go faster than the Blue Train was of no special merit. He raised the stakes by arguing that at the wheel of his Bentley Speed Six, he could be at his club in London before the train reached Calais and bet £100 on that challenge.
  The next day, 13 March 1930, as the Blue Train steamed out of Cannes station at 17:45h, Barnato and his relief driver, amateur golfer Dale Bourn, finished their drinks and drove the Bentley away from the bar at the Carlton. From Lyon onwards they had to battle against heavy rain. At 4:20h, in Auxerre, they lost time searching for a refueling rendezvous. Through central France they hit fog, then shortly after Paris they had a burst tyre, requiring the use of their only spare. They reached the dock at Boulogne at 10:30h, sailed to England on the cross-Channel packet, and were parking outside The Conservative Club in St. James's Street, London, at 15:20h, four minutes before the Blue Train reached Calais, thus winning the bet. The French authorities promptly fined him a sum far greater than his winnings for racing on public roads, and Bentley was excluded from the 1930 Paris Salon for advertising an unauthorized race.
caption: Woolf Barnato's Speed Six H. J. Mulliner saloon, in which he raced against the Blue Train.
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