Not so vintage? Battle of the racing Bentley

An American lawyer is suing a Hertfordshire classic car dealer over the restored Speed Six she bought for £430,000.

Mercedes Travis Brewer claims Stanley Mann wrongly told her the vehicle had been restored with original and authentic engine and components.

The Speed Six, made between 1926 and 1930, was Bentley's most successful racer and won Le Mans in 1929 and 1930. A valuation by Bentley Drivers Club Ltd priced such a model at £550,000.

But Ms Brewer, who bought the car in 2007, says that when she put the car in for auction at Bonhams in 2008, it was valued at £300,000 to £350,000.

She says it was discovered that the engine was only a 1927 6.5-litre Bentley modified to look like a Speed Six. Parts of the chassis, wheelbase, petrol pump, steering drop arm and gearbox were also not authentic, she adds.

She says Mr Mann, head of Stanley Mann Racing of Radlett, "knew the actual provenance of the engine ... as he personally had acquired it and installed it". She is claiming unspecified damages for "misrepresentation and/or breach of warranty", plus just under £95,000 she paid to the hire purchase company, and interest.

But Mr Mann, whose firm describes itself as "the world's leading vintage Bentley specialists", rejects her claims and insists he acted in good faith: "I built the car for myself in the late Seventies and I love that car. For 18 months she had nothing but fun with it. Then she decided to sell it and the valuation she got didn't reach the price she wanted.

"She then comes flying back to me. I offered her her money back but she wants more and she wants interest. I would have loved to take the car back. I built it for myself, not anyone else." The case is due to start next week.

In 1930 Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato bet £100 he could drive a Speed Six from the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, to his London club before the train could reach Calais. He won by four minutes - but was fined by the French authorities for racing on public roads.