Bringing Back the Bentley Boys; Ambitious marketing program aims to educate target customers.(Brief Article)

You and I know about the Bentley Boys, about the five Le Mans wins out of eight entries in the 1920s, about the prestige and beauty of the handcrafted automobiles built by W.O. Bentley. But much of the rest of the world might not know. And the rest of the world includes a lot of potential buyers.

So Bentley is doing something about it.

With more money than the marketing department has ever seen (thanks to Volkswagen ownership, with a mind to exploit the marque's return to Le Mans this year), Bentley launched a cross-country education program. Over the past few months car carriers unloaded Bentleys at racetracks across America, and caretakers handed over the keys to those with the means to purchase the cars.

The relatively short programs included a brief presentation on the history of the marque, then several laps with an instructor followed by an afternoon of driving at high speed around a race course in Arnage Red Labels and Continental Rs. It's all very necessary, of course, especially in America where even this year's third-place finish at Le Mans got little to no attention in the popular press.

``People have a perception of Bentley that is very close to Rolls-Royce,'' said Carsten Preisz, Bentley's western regional marketing manager. ``That is partly true, you are surrounded by luxury, but very few people understand Bentley from the perspective of performance.''

So it was that 24 to 28 per day of those with the ...