Walter Owen Bentley (1888-1971) founded his company in 1919 at Cricklewood in London.  The cars that were built were expensive and had a variety of coachbuilt bodies.  The firm’s reputation grew with five wins at Le Mans between 1924 and 1930, Captain Woolf Barnato winning three times.  He later bought the company when it experienced financial difficulties.  In 1931, Bentley was then acquired by Rolls-Royce with production moving to Derby and then to Crewe.  After WW II, the R-Type Continental was introduced, with other models that were built being closely based on Rolls-Royces for decades.  In the 1980’s, high-performance luxury GT cars were manufactured, such as the Mulsanne and Arnage.  In 1998 Bentley was acquired by the Volkswagen Group and won Le Mans again in 2003.  Today, production of their luxury range of vehicles continues in Crewe.