Very few would have been delivered in the majestic form that BR2354 was, with costly coachwork that mirrored its sporting mechanical aspects. This Bentley received its body by the esteemed company of Barker & Co. Coachbuilders, a rare choice, as Barker ultimately bodied only 19 of the 6.5-liter chassis. True to form, Barker clothed the brazen Bentley with a beautifully proportioned and high-quality sports tourer body, seating seven adults if required, with two rear fold-down occasional seats, a tour de force in coachbuilding curved throughout on multiple planes and supremely elegant. A period photograph, reproduced on these pages, shows the finished article, which after being registered in May 1928 was used by HM Bentley & Partners as their Demonstrator.

It was to be a proposition that very few could step up to, the buyer a Major J.T. North taking delivery eleven months later. Major North, a resident of Surrey, was the nephew of the infamous Chile "Nitrate King" Colonel JT North, and was a decorated veteran of the Great War.

Two further British custodians handled the Bentley, before it migrated in 1937, comfortably before the outbreak of war, to South Africa for a 75-year sojourn. In the early 1940s, on the Cape, it was owned by two young friends in the South African Air Force. But, despite being out of harm's way from the UK, it was not immune to the consequences of the times; large capacity six-cylinder cars not being easy to keep on the road during fuel shortages. On one occasion, running the car on Aviation fuel caused the car to be impounded by the local authorities. Then, as an alternative, for a while the resourceful Air Forcers converted its fuel source to be wood! Photos on file still exist with its wood burner sitting where its luggage rack once was.

Ownership would pass a few times before it arrived with long term owner, South African Mrs. Alva Wilkins in 1964. Mrs. Alva Wilkins, a lady of diminutive stature of 5ft 4ins, quite the opposite of the Woolf Barnato "frame" that one might think was required to pilot these cars. Despite this, she actively used the Vintage Bentley for the next 20 years, including tours in both Australia and Africa. Its next custodian would keep the car for almost 30 years before the current owner negotiated to repatriate the Bentley from its long-term South African home.