This is a handmade miniature Cricklewood-type Bentley sports car with a steel chassis, a plywood body, and a 100% electric drivetrain. It’s designed for kids (or very small adults) and it comes with knobby tires as well as a folding canvas top.
Bentleys from the Cricklewood-era are now among the rarest and most desirable of all Bentleys as this was the time when the British automaker was competing regularly at storied race tracks like Brooklands and in the Indianapolis 500, the RAC Tourist Trophy, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Impressively, between 1924 and 1930 a series of Cricklewood Bentleys would win the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times, with particularly strong showings in 1929 when the company took the top four places, and in 1930 when they took the top two steps on the podium.
The soft top and windscreen can be folded down depending on the weather, and thanks to the knobby tires it can be driven on grass or dirt.
The miniature Bentley you see in this article is perhaps a little slower and certainly a lot quieter than those Cricklewood originals. It has a box section steel chassis with a painted plywood body, steel wings, and functional doors.
It’s finished in British Racing Green, over a black interior with green carpets and it measures in at 230cm x 90cm x 80cm which works out to approximately 90.55 inches x 35.43 inches x 31.50 inches. Motive power is provided by a 24 volt 650 watt electric motor and 235Ah Lucas batteries, which drive the rear wheels through a transmission with a single forward and reverse gear.
Inside the car there’s seating for four (small) people and the pedals can be slid forward or backward to accommodate different leg lengths.
The car comes with a charger for the batteries, and it can be plugged into a standard wall outlet.
This vehicle is a one-off build so you’re unlikely to ever see another quite like it. It has the aforementioned fold down soft top as well as a fold down windscreen, opening doors on either side, seating for four (in a pinch), rear disc brakes, and adjustable pedals that can be moved forward or back to accommodate different leg sizes.
If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Collecting Cars. It’s being offered for sale out of Anzegem, West Flanders, Belgium.
Images courtesy of Collecting Cars
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
