Dr. Paul Sydlowski fills the Bentley before a ride through the Rhode Island countryside.

BRISTOL Dr. Paul Sydlowski loves to thrash his 1924 3-liter Bentley.

The green convertible tourer is a fine looking car. With its massive hood and headlights, racing seats and exterior gas tank, it looks every bit the kind of racer that dominated race tracks in the late 1920s.

But the semi-retired ophthalmologist is not interested in owning a trailer queen. What he loves about the car is being able to thrash it, to drive it hard and fast on racetracks and at rallies.

“I owned a Bentley for 10 years before I took it out on a track, and then I realized what a hell of a car it was,” he said. He has owned a number of vintage Bentleys over the years.

“This car will keep up with modern traffic,” he added as he took a reporter and a photographer out for a 60-mile spin on a recent sunny afternoon. “You drive a Model A on the roads and you’re a menace to yourself and everyone else.”

But Sydlowski was being coy; his modified 3-liter — during restoration he had the new block bored out to 5.3 liters — can more than keep up. He has raced it at over 100 mph, and the recent ride included pounding down Route 24 in Massachusetts at (slightly) over the speed limit, leaving poor noodles in their modern cars simply in the dust.

“Look at how well it’s balanced,” he yelled as he lifted both hands from the steering wheel while the car was flying along at over 70 mph. His hat blew off, but the car held its course, smooth as silk.

Sydlowski served in the Navy as a flight surgeon on aircraft carriers for many years before setting up practice in Providence. He lives in Bristol and continues to work part-time out of an office there.

“I always liked cars but settled on vintage Bentleys,” he said. “I like them because they are classics, they keep up with modern traffic, they hardly ever have mechanical problems — they’re overbuilt — and I can go racing in them.”

Sydlowski owned a 1923 3-liter for over 20 years and plans on keeping his 1924 Bentley, which he bought in Britain in 2005 and had restored and tweaked there, for just as long.“They’re built like tractors: they run for ever,” he said. “It’ll last my lifetime.”

He said he had the car built up light and fast to imitate the cars that raced. “(The car) is up to factory specs as in 1924; I’m still breaking in the engine,” he said.

Not only is Sydlowski’s Bentley fast, it’s also astonishingly maneuverable, sticking to the road like glue as he steered it with a racer’s finesse through tight curves at 60-plus mph.

“The faster you go, the lighter they are to handle,” he said. “From 80-to-90 (mph) there’s a little bit of a wobble, but after 90 it’s like glass. The car is not stressed when driven with verve.”

He also owns a 1937 Bentley open tourer that he keeps in a friend’s garage in England. “I bought it about 16 years ago in Tiverton,” he said. “It was a clapped out saloon that was not running and it took eight years to put it together.”

He said he keeps it for touring in Britain, but added that he has not driven it in years.

Sydlowski said most American collectors send their Bentleys to Britain to be restored. “There are about two people in the U.S. who can build one up and fix it up for you, and it would take until 2011,” he said. “Over there, there are twenty to thirty. It’s a big industry keeping these things on the road – all the parts are available.”

In 2006, following restoration, he shipped his 1924 Bentley to South Africa for a 3,000-plus mile rally of about 28 vintage Bentleys.

The rally was organized by the Bentley Drivers Club, which has about 3,500 members worldwide. The club is headquartered at the W.O. Bentley Memorial Building, a part museum and administrative center that was opened in England in July. Sydlowski said there are about 500 members in the United States

“There are rallies all over the world,” he said, adding that rallying had played a big part in his family’s life over the years. He and his wife, Barbara, go on rallies every year and used to bring their now-grown up daughters – they have three – along.

“We’ve made hundreds and hundreds of wonderful friends through the club,” he said. “We’ve gone on rallies in America, Europe, Africa and Australia and New Zealand. We’re spoiled by the club. Everything is organized.”

He said they went on their first rally in 1982. It started in the tony resort of Megeve in the French Alps and finished in Venice.

“The car was trucked back and we returned to Paris on the Orient Express,” he said, smiling. “That set the hook.”

Following last year’s South African Rally, he sent the 1924 Bentley back to Britain and had some minor repair work done before having it shipped over here. It arrived in May of this year.

The car owes its performance to Walter Owen “W.O.” Bentley for its engine, and to coachbuilder Vanden Plas for its body.

In 1905, when he was 16, Bentley started work as an apprentice railroad engineer but spent much of his spare time racing motorcycles. He later joined his brother in importing D.F.P. cars made in France by Doriot-Flandrin et Parant, and in 1912 they bought out D.F.P.’s British agency and produced a sportier car that included the first aluminum pistons.

During WWI, he was involved in developing rotary engines for the Royal Naval Air Service. They were used in such planes as the iconic Sopwith Camel biplane that was the main adversary of the German Fokker triplane of Red Baron fame.

In 1919, he formed Bentley Motors and in 1921 delivered the first 3-liter tourer. It had four cylinders, 4 valves per cylinder and a single overhead camshaft.

“It was the first production car with aluminum cylinders, and when it came to market it could do 90 mph,” he said. “The goal was a reliable, fast touring car. It was designed to take the family to the Continent and get there safely and comfortably.”

The customer bought the engine and rolling chassis, with Bentley recommending coachbuilders.

One was Vanden Plas, which made the body of Sydlowski’s 1924 3-liter. Originally a Belgian company with a plant near the Bentley factory in Cricklewood in north London, Vanden Plas produced light, flexible bodies that gave the fast touring cars great handling.

In 1923, John Duff entered his personal 3-liter Bentley into the first Grand Prix d’Endurance at Le Mans and came fourth. The following year, he won marking the beginning of Bentley’s dominance of the 24-hour endurance race in the late 1920s.

Success attracted a group of talented drivers – mostly wealthy amateurs – who became known as the “Bentley Boys.”

A 3-liter Bentley won in 1927 followed by a 4 1/2 liter model in 1928. In 1929, a 6-cylinder, 6 1/2 liter Speed Six Bentley – perhaps the most famous of the vintage Bentleys – won with 4 1/2-liter models coming in second, third and fourth.Sydlowski used to own a 1927 Speed Six, and his wife Barbara laughingly told of wearing a silk dress while pushing it down Bellvue Avenue in Newport in 1980 following a cocktail party.

A Speed Six again won Le Mans in 1930, but Bentley was beginning to fall on hard times as the Depression cut demand for big, expensive cars. In 1931, the company was surreptitiously bought out by Rolls-Royce, which feared the new 8-liter Bentley would take market share from its Phantom II Continental. Bentley continued to be Rolls-Royce’s sporty subsidiary until 1998, when it was acquired by Volkswagen. (Rolls-Royce was acquired by BMW at the same time.)

Since then, Bentley has returned to Le Mans, winning in 2003, and the name of its powerful 2008 Continental GT Speed – 600 hp, 0-to-60 mph in 4.3 seconds, top speed 202 mph – echoes the Speed Six models of the late 1920s.

But Sydlowski said he preferred his modified 4-cylinder Bentley over the 6-cylinder Speed Six because it’s easier to drive.

“It’s more chuckable; I can drive it with gusto,” he said. “It gives me immense pleasure.”

Auto Biography tells an interesting story about a car and its driver. If you think you have a newsworthy story to tell about your car, write to Auto Biography, Features Department, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St. Providence RI 02902 or e-mail projocars@projo.com. Be sure to put “Auto Biography” in the subject field.

The car doesn’t have to be a classic or expensive, but it should be somehow unique. The driver must be willing to be interviewed by a reporter about what makes this car special and to be photographed with the car.

pelsworth@projo.com