Jack Barclay Bentley is the world’s largest and oldest Bentley dealership and part of the H.R. Owen motor retailing group.
Jack Barclay’s name is indelibly associated with Bentley, whose powerful grand tourers dominated endurance racing at Brooklands and Le Mans throughout the 1920s. Barclay recorded a number of impressive victories at Brooklands, and logged eight world records in the International 3 Litre class in 1925.
His racing prowess brought him to the attention of Woolf Barnato, the millionaire playboy who would go on to be both the chairman of Bentley and one of its works team’s most successful racers.
Unlike the moneyed Bentley Boys, Jack Barclay had no inherited wealth to finance his racing lifestyle. In 1922 he became a partner in motor retailer Barclay and Wyse, selling Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall cars.
After he ran up massive gambling debts at the casino in Le Touquet his mother, fearful for her son’s safety, paid the debts on condition that he gave up racing and focused on his motor dealership business.
Accordingly, in 1927 he opened Jack Barclay in George Street, Hanover Square as a Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealership, which soon became the pre-eminent Bentley dealership worldwide. But he couldn’t resist another tilt at motorsport, winning the inaugural Brooklands 500 in 1929 at the wheel of a 4 ½ Litre with works driver Frank Clement, setting an average speed of 107.32 mph.
With his charismatic manner and wide contacts throughout the world of motorsport and luxury cars, Jack Barclay was an outstanding salesman. He coined the phrase ‘service after sale’ to describe his business ethos and much of his commercial success was based upon maintaining close and friendly relationships with his customers, a philosophy still practiced today in the company.