IT’S A FAMILIAR dilemma, and one that’s becoming increasingly pressing as motoring habits and attitudes change and technical advances distance today’s motorists from the experience and understanding of vintage cars. You’re the middle- aged owner of a wonderful vintage Bentley which is your pride and joy, but your children either don’t want, or don’t know how (likely both), to drive it, look after it and treasure it as you do. What can you do? For too many owners the answer has been to enjoy the car for a few more years and then sell it — but there is another solution.
At Vintage Bentley, a restorer and dealer in those fine cars based near the village of Liss in rural Hampshire, England, proprietor William Medcalf is on a mission to get those uninterested or inexperienced sons and daughters to learn how to drive and enjoy their parent’s cars. “It’s all about sharing the passion — when you share it, people love it,” he says. He points out that when the cars were new, they were driven by young people as well as the more mature but, he concedes, “These days it’s not the norm.”
His solution to the dilemma, launched four years ago, is Generations Day, an opportunity for the sons and daughters (or other younger relations) of owners to go through a training course on their parents’ vintage Bentleys in the safe and controlled environment of the famed Goodwood motor circuit
near Chichester on England’s south coast. “We are,” says Medcalf, “engaging with the next generation: if we don’t get them involved, where’s the future?” In the four years since it was launched, about 100 new Bentley drivers (most of them the offspring of Bentley owners, but also including some wives, girlfriends, nephews, even a young owner’s mother) have taken part, with no fewer than 32 of them in 2025.
One of the issues that Medcalf identified when launching Generations Day is that “often dads don’t know what to do, or how to do it, to get their kids involved,” so a key feature of the program is the use of experienced Bentley drivers as instructors. All the half dozen or so instructors have owned, used, and maintained their own vintage Bentleys for years, and several have raced their cars, too — and, crucially, their number includes a lady, Katie Ratcliffe, who has lived with them all her life.
Along with its mission to bring a new cohort of drivers into the vintage Bentley world, Generations Day has another aim — sustainability, through increasing the visibility and use of 100% synthetic fuel in older cars. Vintage Bentley has championed the use of P1 synthetic fuel for several years now, and all the cars which William and his team use on track run exclusively on it. So, the cars which VB brings to the day are running on this fuel and Medcalf says: “For most it’s the first time they’ve experienced driving a car on it. It’s an opportunity to see it and try it, and experience driving a 100-year-old car on 100% synthetic fuel, making the experience carbon-neutral.”
Generations Day always begins the night before, with a reception and informal meal held at Vintage Bentley’s headquarters, giving the participants and instructors time to get to know each other while inspecting the cars in the showroom and seeing the dozen or more undergoing restoration or competition preparation in the workshops. It also gives them a chance to talk with the VB staff about their cars and see the huge stock of spares manufactured and held on site. But the real reason for the gathering lies 18 miles away.
And so on a quiet spring morning, the peace of the Goodwood motor circuit is shattered by the arrival of a convoy of Cricklewood’s finest cars arriving from Vintage Bentley, followed by perhaps 20 more “customer” cars bearing excited (or nervous) passengers, most of whom are about to get their first experience of handling their parents’ precious vehicles.
Among them will be a smattering of invited guests coming to sample the joys of vintage Bentley motoring for a variety of reasons. This year they include petrolhead and supermodel-turned-publican Jodie Kidd and Izzy Hammond, the influencer daughter of Richard Hammond, co-host of BBC Top Gear and Amazon’s The Grand Tour. “We taught her to drive a vintage Bentley, and she’ll spread the word,” says Medcalf.
At the 2024 event, F1 driver Sebastian Vettel’s PA came, especially to see for herself and report back to the eco-minded Vettel, the success of running 100-year-old vehicles on synthetic fuels — and enjoyed a lot of high-speed Bentley laps into the bargain. Also along are two representatives of the classic-vehicle insurance sector, who have come to see how the young drivers are taught, how competent and responsible they are, and to sample the course themselves. The aim is clear, says Medcalf: “We’ve put together a course with insurance in mind, and they’ve got to insure younger people.”
The formal day begins with signing-on, with tea, coffee and pastries, and introductions between the pupils and their allocated instructors for the day. There then follows an introduction from Medcalf on the art of double de-clutching and silent gear- changing on the Bentley sliding-mesh gearbox, which he is at pains to point out is nowhere near as fearful a mechanism as popular myth would have it.
This lecture is accompanied by explanatory diagrams, illustrative meshing of a couple of cogs, and an amusing demonstration of the art of timing, using a tennis racquet, umbrella and ball.
Then there’s the obligatory briefing by a member of the Goodwood staff on driving etiquette and procedures on the track itself, before everybody leaps into their Bentleys — driven at this stage by the owning fathers or instructors — to move to the initial training ground, a large open car park on the outside of the circuit.
While all this is going on, another group of young drivers is taking advantage of an otherwise empty racetrack. These are drivers under 30 years old who occasionally gather informally in the very early hours of a morning to do a “Vintage London Rally” around the city, just for the fun and camaraderie of doing it. Today, they are being rewarded with a spell of free circuit time with their pre-war cars of any make.
The first part of instruction this year is to take the learner drivers around the car, introducing them to all the checks that need to be done before first starting the car each time it is taken out. So engine oil, fuel tank and radiator water levels are checked, along with tyre pressures, before starting procedures from cold are run through.
All the learners will already have a driving license and drive modern cars all the time, but many will have no experience of setting ignition timing manually, using a choke and separate magneto switches, or of leaving the engine to warm up on the hand throttle. Once all those checks and explanations have been done (and noted on the driver’s evaluation sheet) the day moves on to some actual driving.
The aim of the first exercise is just to establish that everybody can change up and down through the gearbox reasonably confidently and reliably. Many of the young drivers “get” this almost immediately: for others there are numerous laps of the car park, continuously coming to a rest and re-starting after a missed gearchange until suddenly it all ‘clicks as nervous fumbling gives way to huge smiles and
confidence. After a confirmatory couple of laps when the learner demonstrates that he or she can indeed change all the way up and down the gearbox, it’s back through the tunnel under the circuit, and out through the paddock to the pitlane for the experience of driving on the circuit.
Again, for many this is the first time driving any car — far less a vintage Bentley — on a racetrack, so as well as practicing how to drive the Bentley, each driver must pay a bit of attention to learning the layout and “do’s-and-don’ts” of the circuit. Emphatically this is not about race instruction — just getting used to the fact that while they have the exclusive use of a beautiful 2¾-mile road with no distractions like traffic coming the other way, traffic lights, intersections or pedestrians crossing, there could be other cars overtaking on a side that they’re not used to, or stopping where they might not expect them to.
Indeed, the emphasis in this part of the day is all about frequent stops and re-starts, so that the pupils get used to handling their cars in the conditions of modern traffic in a safe environment, and at speeds below 50mph. So, around the circuit cones are placed at safe, well-sighted stopping points, to encourage drivers to exercise their new-found skills of working up and down the gearbox — as well as getting further experience of using vintage drum brakes and unassisted steering.
After a few laps of these exercises, the learners can start to bring all this together, as they string together a lap in which they can use the gearbox to slow the car down coming into a slow corner and learn how soon to brake before those corners — not that they really have to do much of the former, given the enormous top-gear flexibility of even the smallest-engined vintage Bentley 3-litre.
Then comes the greatest satisfaction for instructor and pupil alike, when the car comes back into the pits and the newly-proficient young driver is sent out on his or her first solo laps — just like seeing the student aircraft pilot sent off on their first solo. And that satisfaction extends to the proud, no-longer-nervous owner/parent, watching from the pit-counter or sitting in the passenger seat alongside their son or daughter, now a Bentley driver.
At the end of the morning session, the participants, along with instructors and Vintage Bentley staff, bring out all the customer cars plus the stock and demonstration cars brought along for the day, for a photographic parade of 30+ Bentleys, covering several laps for the cameras before everybody retires for lunch in the Jackie Stewart Pavillion (better known to Audrain’s staff and customers as their hospitality HQ during Goodwood’s annual Members’ Meeting weekend).
There are then a couple of hours of open track sessions when the 50mph speed restriction is lifted and drivers young and old — now wearing crash helmets — are able to explore more of their cars’ performance. During this session, Medcalf and some of the instructors offer paid-for “hot laps” passenger rides in a few of the more powerful Bentleys, with the passengers getting to experience first-hand just how exhilarating a vintage Bentley can be at full racing speeds — and the local Multiple Sclerosis charity benefitting from the funds generated.
At the end of the day, after a proper English afternoon tea, certificates are handed to all those who have completed the course, and prizes awarded to the learners deemed to have been the most improved
drivers of the day.
Has it all been worth it?
Medcalf says: “It’s lovely to see the families coming to the day and then having the conversation about the future. Last year a guy brought his daughter — they had been talking about selling the car as the family weren’t showing an interest. By the end of the day the daughter was skipping for joy, and she drove them home in the car. Seeing her enjoyment and skill, the family kept the car — we couldn’t have wished for anybody more cock-a-hoop at seeing their car’s future resolved.”
Another owner this year loves and races his Bentley, but his son had shown no interest, so he had never taught him to drive it. By the end of the morning, the owner is on the pit wall watching his son drive past and loving it.
Lady instructor Katy Ratcliffe says she really enjoys passing her love of the vintage Bentley on to the next generation, and finds giving instruction really satisfying, though she notes: “I find the girls are generally better pupils, as they listen more, and take more notice of your advice!”
The success of the day is summed up in some of the participants’ comments:
“To see my son and father both mastering (more or less!) a 100-year-old car on the track was a day to remember, and I know they both enjoyed it a great deal.”
“Great event with a wonderful purpose. Thank you for doing this for the young people and new owners. Awesome!”
“I really enjoyed the day, especially teaching my pupils and seeing them progress. It’s very satisfying to see them pounding around the track in the afternoon showing off their gear-changing skills!”
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