Three-quarters Front view of the Bentley MkV1 'Gibbs Special' Sports Two-Seater Gibbs Bentley Special on Display at the 2019 London Classic Car Show
Built using a MkVI chassis, the car offered here takes the 'Bentley Special' concept to its ultimate expression and is surely the most advanced such creation in the world. This Bentley was hand built by the late Paul Gibbs of Wisbech Engineering, who constructed around 120 cars during his lifetime. His swansong project, it was constructed between 2003 and 2006 with no regard to cost. Paul's idea was to build a Bentley MkVI Special racer for entry into the Bentley and Aston Martin classic race series, which would also serve as an exciting two-seater road car for rallies and tours. The Special started life as a complete 1948 MkVI chassis into which Paul fitted a new 1997 Bentley Cosworth 6750cc V8 development engine. The build process took over three years and circa 6,500 man-hours. Most of the car was built by hand using a lathe and an English wheel. Parts and materials of the highest quality were sourced worldwide to produce a very quick, safe and tractable car with awesome handling, boasting a stunning futuristic-looking body. The aircraft inspired tubular spaceframe chassis is built in CDS2 material. There are gas/oil adjustable dampers and tubular anti-roll bars. A Halibrand aluminium quick-change rear axle is fitted together with AP Racing 330mm vented discs and four-pot callipers. The axle is located by four links and laterally by an 'A' arm. The racing wheels are 10"x22" diameter aluminium, shod with soft compound road tyres. For safety this Bentley is fitted with driver and passenger roll hoops and five-point safety harnesses. The cockpit has adjustable brake bias and full, custom made gauges set with aluminium anodised switches. The heart of this car is its engine: an 'as new' 1997 ex-Cosworth Bentley development V8 fitted with custom twin turbochargers, stainless steel headers and a full bespoke exhaust/silencer system.
Size: 5335px × 3438px
Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -point, -seater, 18swg, 400, 1948, 1997, 2019, 330mm, 525bhp, 6750cc, adjustable, aircraft, aluminium, anodised, ap, aston, automatic, axle, bentley, bespoke, bias, body, brake, built, car, chassis, classic, close-, coachwork, cockpit, cosworth, crafted, custom, development, discs, driver, ecu, engine, engineering, english, exhaust, exhaust/silencer, full, gauges, gearbox, gibbs, halibrand, hand, harnesses., headers, hoops, inspired, lathe, london, martin, mkv1, mkvi, passenger, paul, pectel, quick-change, race, racing, rear, road, roll, safety, series, set, shapecraft, show, silencer, spaceframe, special, stainless, steel, switches, system., t6, tubular, turbochargers, turbohydromatic, twin, v8, vented, wheel, wisbech
