Bentley's Famous Blower Racecar Replica Will Race at Le Mans 90 Years After Its Forefather

Car Zero is the hero of this majestic comeback. If you need to learn what that means, turn back the pages of car racing history albums to 1929. Ninety-six years ago, a four-and-a-half-liter supercharged engine powered five select Bentley racers on endurance trials.

The car from the infancy of motor racing was a deviation from Bentley’s vision of “more engine for more speed,” having a supercharger fitted at the very front of the car. The company’s founder – who also designed the engine – didn’t allow modifications to house the mechanical compressor.

Thus, the Roots-type supercharger (built by Amherst Villiers) was bolted at the front of the magnesium crankcase under the radiator. Because of this oddity, it was named “Blower”; it is the most valuable Bentley automobile to date and by far the most famous in the British manufacturer’s (racing) history. Its heart is the now-legendary four-cylinder, a mechanical masterpiece at the time.

Bowing to W.O. Bentley’s creation, the engine featured a single overhead camshaft, twin-spark ignition, four valves per cylinder, and aluminum pistons. The high-performance variant designed for racing also received a revised, reinforced crankshaft and rods, and a modified oil system.

Three and a half years ago, the British car company undertook a massively complex task of rebuilding a replica of the 1929 racer. This recreation is the Car Zero, the clone of the original Blower. Twelve such exact copies have been planned – eight have already been built and four are underway.

All of them have been sold even before the first part of the first car was even machined. In genuine British motoring tradition, a historic automobile replica would only be brought to life by traditional craftsmanship.

The Car Zero project has begun with a complete dismantling of the 1929 Blower, a laser-precise scan of each and every single part of it, and a country-wide selection of motoring and metal artisans. Bentley specifically looked for craftsmen who used the same methods and tools as in 1929. Play the video for a brief insight into the Car Zero build efforts.

It took Bentley engineers and contractors 40,000 hours to put the Blower reproduction in its definitive form. From studying the company’s archives and original drawings and blueprints to using the latest high-definition scanners to create high-fidelity copies of the original parts, the project spared no expense and cut no corners.

Heavy-gauge steel (formed by hand and assembled with hot rivets) was used for the chassis, fabricated by a company with 200-year-long expertise in making boilers for steam locomotives. The radiator shell of the Car Zero – made from mirror-polished German Silver (shining in the gallery) – and the hand-hammered steel and copper fuel tank are exact duplicates of the originals.

22 lb (10 kilograms) of horsehair serve as seat stuffing, the frame is made from ash, and the red leather upholstery is just as fresh as the one on Team Car #2 from 96 years ago. Five supercharged 4.5-liter engines were explicitly built for motorsports; one is still in Bentley Motors’ possession and is regularly used at historic motoring events – including racing.

Car Zero – the first in the Bentley Continuation Series program – will race at Donington Park, UK, Le Mans, France, and Spa, Belgium in 2023. The car ran a six-hour full-race-pace trial at the Goodwood Motor Circuit to test its competition readiness.

Three hundred eighty miles at an average of 83 miles per hour is a remarkable result for the Blower imitation. However, the original was capable of much more. Its 242-hp (245 ps) inline-four set a speed record of 137.96 mph (222.03 kph) in 1932.

It was also famous for its almost paroxysm-driving unreliability – that prevented it from winning any of the twelve races it entered – and gargantuan fuel consumption. At full steam, the Blower would burn four liters (1.1 gallons) of fuel every minute. But its speed was the downright jaw-dropping act of the small, supercharged engine and the four-speed unsynchronized gearbox.

Modern additions, mandated by safety regulations governing historic vehicle racing, are relatively discrete – rain lights, a battery isolation switch, wing mirrors, towing points, or a fire extinguisher. About this last detail – the ‘29 Blower earned its nickname after a fire-related incident.

During the 500-mile (800-km) endurance race at Brooklands, England in 1929, a crack in the exhaust set ablaze the canvas bodywork. The driver, Sir Henry Birkin (who was also one of the engineers behind the supercharged 4.5-liter engine), put out the fire and carried on finishing that race.

Car Zero – the Bentley Blower copycat – is the engineering prototype of the Bentley Blower Continuation Series, a run of twelve pre-war automobile replicas. Bentley commissioned the in-house Mulliner bespoke division to oversee the works for this program – a world-first by a manufacturer.