$97,900 USD | Sold

Post World War II, Rolls-Royce wound down production in their airplane factories and began to retool to produce vehicles again. The Bentley Mark VI was introduced as the very first Rolls-Royce-built motor car with standard coachwork by Rolls-Royce Ltd. The VIN identified each vehicle as it came off the newly installed assembly line. For this VIN, B1BG, the first B is for Bentley as opposed to RR for Rolls-Royce. The number 1 indicates the sequence in the batch of cars produced. The last two letters, BG, were used on cars produced between 1946 and the beginning of 1948.

Therefore, when this car rolled off the assembly in 1946 it was the very beginning of a new dawn for Bentley and Rolls-Royce. The original owner, T.E. Davies, purchased the car for Mrs. Mondron-Lethbridge, stated to be a French countess assigned to South Africa, which accounts for the right-hand drive but an odometer reading in miles per hour. In the 40 years that she owned the vehicle, she put approximately 12,000 miles on the odometer.

When she sold it to Bloomsbury Investment Cars, Cape Town, South Africa, in 1987, she told them that she disliked the car and rarely drove it because being a right-hand drive, and the stick shift just inside the door opening interfered with her dress while getting in and out of the car. They did no repairs to the vehicle, and it was purchased as an investment in 1987 by John Haag, the brother of Robert Haag, the 'Meteorite Man,' who found the car while searching for meteorites in South Africa. The car was shipped to his residence in Tucson, AZ. It was later sold to Robert E. Lundquist, an attorney, in 1988.

Lundquist stripped the paint down to the steel and repainted the car with acrylic enamel ivory. He also removed and cleaned the engine-head covers. He put about 2,000 miles on the car, using it primarily to go to the opera house. The car was sold to Robert Burch, a car dealer in Atlanta, GA, in 2006 with 15,300 miles. Burch stored it in a warehouse until his death. The present owner purchased the vehicle in 2008 with 15,600 miles. He rebuilt the water pump, replaced the working fuel pump with an electronic pump, replaced the weatherstripping and added new tires. This car was manufactured without an air conditioner and is missing the cigarette lighter.

A radio was added to the car at some point. 18,070 miles (title reads exempt).

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/new-orleans-2023/docket/vehicle/1947-bentley-mark-vi-270494