The idea of a race between a Bentley car and the Blue Train in France goes back to a wager that Woolf BARNATO had with some friends in 1930. Woolf wanted to test Bentley's advertising claims that their car was faster than the Blue Train.
Woolf's father was Barney BARNATO who, with Cecil RHODES, became wealthy by developing the Kimberley diamond mines. While sailing home to England, Barney mysteriously disappeared overboard. Woolf, then 2 years old and accompanying his father, became an instant millionaire.
In the late 1920s, Woolf joined the "Bentley Boys," a group of young men who favored W.O. BENTLEY's big, fast sports cars. Four of the Bentley Boys owned adjoining flats in London's Grosvenor Square. They were serious racers, part of the official Bentley race team determined to win LeMans. Their first win came in 1927, the last in 1930 with Woolf sharing the driving duties. Woolf propped up the Bentley Motor Car company with his business savvy, eventually becoming chairman.
The Blue Train (le Train Bleue) was as legendary as the racing Bentleys. It was the quickest and most luxurious transport from the Riviera to Calais and then, via the English Channel to Dover, where it was loaded on to a ferry to London's Victoria station.
Woolf took up the wager, setting out in a specially-bodied Bentley coupe. In those days the entire trip would have been made on 2-lane roads at speeds exceeding 100 mph. Woolf arrived in Calais ahead of the Blue Train, continued by ferry and beat the train to its final destination in London by 4 minutes. That very Bentley is now revered as the Blue Train Special.