Wally Hassan was one of the finest mechanics at Bentley, and in the 1930s he was retained by former chairman and Le Mans winner Woolf Barnato to work on his personal cars. He had Hassan build him an 8 liter Bentley single seater in order to win the record at Brooklands. This car was to become known as the Barnato-Hassan. Bill Pacey asked Barnato if Hassan could build him a 4.5 liter version, and the Pacey-Hassan was born.