Photo: Bentley
It’s called Car Zero, and it is the prototype Bentley is using to fine-tune what should become the “world’s first pre-war continuation series.” Announced exactly one year ago, the limited run Blower Continuation Series – just 12 units would be made – is a tribute to the supercharged 4½-Litre ‘Blower’ created for racing by Sir Tim Birkin in the late 1920s.
Car Zero is currently being built, and soon it would be paired to the first-ever engine from the series. This powerplant, an exact recreation of the original, was just fired up for the first time in Crewe, on a testbed that long time ago was used to try out Merlin aircraft engines – Crew is where Rolls-Royce made Merlin engines for the needs of the Second World War, and some 25,000 of them have been made here and fitted on Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes.
According to Bentley, the first fire up of the engine first took place two weeks ago, but for some reason we’re only now finding out about it. The carmaker is now in the middle of the testing process that calls for 20 hours of testing with rpm gradually increasing to 3,500. Once that step is completed, it will find its way into Car Zero for real-world testing.
Mulliner Classic division is handling the build of the Blower Continuation Series. Only newly-made parts will be used, exact mechanical copies of the 90-year old original. The engine is 4½-liter in displacement, as Bentley likes to say, and should develop 240 bhp at 4,200 rpm. It will pull on a body built on a pressed steel frame with leaf spring suspension.
As said, there will be just 12 examples of the Blower made. Prices have not been announced, but that is not important given how all of them have already been spoken for by collectors.
According to Bentley, the first fire up of the engine first took place two weeks ago, but for some reason we’re only now finding out about it. The carmaker is now in the middle of the testing process that calls for 20 hours of testing with rpm gradually increasing to 3,500. Once that step is completed, it will find its way into Car Zero for real-world testing.
Mulliner Classic division is handling the build of the Blower Continuation Series. Only newly-made parts will be used, exact mechanical copies of the 90-year old original. The engine is 4½-liter in displacement, as Bentley likes to say, and should develop 240 bhp at 4,200 rpm. It will pull on a body built on a pressed steel frame with leaf spring suspension.
As said, there will be just 12 examples of the Blower made. Prices have not been announced, but that is not important given how all of them have already been spoken for by collectors.
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