TWELVE NEW BLOWER BENTLEYS ON WAY
Bentley is getting into the ‘continuation car’ game with the ultimate recreation, writes Damien O’Carroll.
It is one of the most famous and iconic racing cars of all time, yet Bentley’s supercharged 41⁄2-litre ‘‘Blower’’ never actually won a race.
But that doesn’t stop it being highly revered and sought after. And it also isn’t stopping it from being reborn as a ‘‘continuation’’ model.
Jumping onto the lucrative continuation bandwagon – following the likes of Jaguar and Aston Martin in recreating small, high-priced runs of iconic models from the past – Bentley has announced a run of just
12 hand-crafted recreations of Sir Tim Birkin’s legendary 1929 41⁄2-litre Blower at the Salon Prive Concours d’Elegance.
‘‘As we continue to commemorate
100 years of Bentley, we are combining a look to our past with the very latest digital technologies and techniques to create something truly extraordinary,’’ said Bentley’s chairman and chief executive, Adrian Hallmark.
Each car will be individually handcrafted by a specialist team from Bentley’s bespoking and coachwork division, Mulliner, and the company says, the new cars will form the world’s ‘‘first pre-war race car continuation series’’.
Only four original Team Blowers were built for racing by Birkin in the late 1920s. The most famous car – Birkin’s own Team Car No 2, registration UU 5872 – raced at Le Mans and played a pivotal role in the factory Bentley Speed Six victory in
1930.
‘‘The four Team Blowers are the most valuable Bentleys in the world, and we know there is demand for genuine recreations that can be used, enjoyed and loved without risk to the prized originals,’’ said Hallmark.
‘‘The 12 new Blowers will not only be an homage to our heritage, they will be a celebration of the outstanding skills of our Mulliner craftspeople. This is a new challenge for Bentley, but with the incredible success of the recent restoration of our 1939 one-of-one Corniche, we wanted to go one step further and make something even more special. Twelve lucky customers will soon be able to own a unique tribute to Bentley’s history.’’
The Blower Bentleys were devised by Sir Tim Birkin – notable racing driver and Bentley Boy – to extract more speed from the racing Bentleys of the day. While W O Bentley’s method was to increase engine capacity – from 3.0-litres, to
41⁄2-litres, to 61⁄2-litres – Birkin was impressed by the Roots-type supercharger developed by British engineer Amherst Villiers, which boosted the 41⁄2’s power from 130 bhp to 240 bhp in race tune.
Dismissed by W O Bentley, Birkin persuaded Bentley chairman Woolf Barnato to sanction production of 55 supercharged 41⁄2-litre Bentleys, with five allocated for competition.
The car on Bentley’s heritage fleet – UU 5872 – is the second of the four ‘‘Team’’ cars developed at Birkin & Co’s workshops at Welwyn Garden City with funding from wealthy heiress Dorothy Paget.
After a formidable racing history Team Car No 2 was sympathetically restored in the 1960s, preserving much of its original patina. Owned by Bentley Motors since 2000, it has had only minor cosmetic maintenance, and is much as Birkin would have driven it. Since then it has competed in the modern Mille Miglia five times, has driven to Le Mans on several occasions and has also appeared at the Goodwood
Festival of Speed as well as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The UU 5872 – now considered the single most valuable Bentley in the world – will be completely disassembled and every part will be catalogued and 3D scanned to create a complete digital model of the car.
It will then be reassembled, with the heritage team taking the opportunity to complete a detailed inspection and ‘‘sympathetic mechanical restoration where required’’.
Then, using the original 1920s moulds and tooling jigs – as well as traditional hand tools alongside the latest manufacturing technology – 12 sets of parts will be created, before being hand assembled into the final cars.
Bentley says the 12 continuations will be identical ‘‘wherever possible’’ to the original – mechanically, aesthetically and spiritually – with only minimal hidden changes ‘‘dictated by modern safety concerns’’.
It will take Mulliner about two years to complete the 12-car series.
Prices will be on application, and they will certainly be in the ‘‘if you have to ask, you can’t afford it’’ range.
‘‘The four Team Blowers are the most valuable Bentleys in the world, and we know there is demand for genuine recreations that can be used, enjoyed and loved without risk to the prized originals.’’ Adrian Hallmark