MAKING A NEW BLOWER ENGINE
Vintage Bentleys aren’t that common, 41/2-litre versions are rarer still and Blowers are unbelievably rare. And Team Cars? Well, there were just four, so recreating an engine from one wasn’t simply a question of grabbing the right bits off the shelf. Ultra-specialist knowledge was required, as well as all the CAD data from a complete stripping down of Bentley’s own Team Car engine.
The knowledge came from Neil Davies of NDR, who created components unique to these cars, including its trademark Amherst Villiers supercharger.
At Bentley, meanwhile, a place to test the engine had to be created, because none of the factory’s modern test rigs was suitable. A new front chassis was made to hold the engine and a testing rig constructed around it, using many fixtures that had been made in the 1930s when the factory was built to make Rolls-royce Merlin V12 aero engines for Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters and Mosquitos.
The engine was then put to work as part of a durability programme that will replicate the equivalent of more than 20,000 miles of driving, including 5000 track miles. This means that whatever any owner wishes to do with their car, be it race it, drive it from Beijing to Paris or just take it to the pub, the car should be more than up to the task.