facilitate production. A prototype was running in the early summer of 1916. The bigger BR2 followed in early 1918. In recognition, Bentley was awarded the MBE. After he was invited in 1920 to make a claim, which the Clerget licensees contested unsuccessfully, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors awarded him £8,000. Bentley Motors After the war, in early 1919, W. O. founded Bentley Motors Limited in small premises in London with Frank Burgess (formerly of Humber) and Harry Varley (formerly of Vauxhall Motors). Clive Gallop joined the team as an engine designer to help develop their straight-4 engine. The 3-litre engine ran for the first time in New Street Mews, Baker Street, London. A plaque marks the building in what is now Chagford Street NW1. W.O.'s first complete Bentley 3 Litre car began road tests in January 1920 and the first production version, made in Cricklewood, was delivered in September 1921. Its durability earned widespread acclaim. W.O.'s motto was "To build a good car, a fast car, the best in class." His cars raced in hill climbs and at Brooklands, and the lone 3 Litre entered by the company in the 1922 Indianapolis 500 mile race and driven by Douglas Hawkes finished thirteenth at an average speed of 74.95 mph. Bentley entered a team of his new 3-litre modified and race-prepared cars in the 1922 Tourist Trophy driving himself in Bentley III; the only team to finish they received the Team Award thereby launching Bentley's reputation; Jean Chassagne (later himself a 'Bentley Boy') on a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam winning outright. Bentleys set many records at the Le Mans 24-hour races, with "Bentley Boy" Woolf Barnato the only driver to win all three times he entered. In 1923, when a rather sceptical W.O. was persuaded to attend the inaugural Le Mans race, he saw John Duff and Frank Clement's private entry take fourth place. A Bentley 3 Litre won at Le Mans in 1924. Neither of the two Bentleys entered in the 1925 race finished it, but subsequent models won again in 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930, with the factory team managed by W.O.'s old school friend Richard Sidney Witchell. Ettore Bugatti is said to have commented that W.O. made "the fastest lorries in the world". With Bentley Motors Ltd. in financial difficulties, and the company's board of directors critical of W.O., Kimberley diamond magnate Barney Barnato's heir Woolf