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Blast From Bentley Blower Past: First Handcrafted Prototype Is Coming to Life

Back in the day, Walter Owen Bentley did not bother himself with the trivialities of car naming conventions. He simply took the Bentley 3 Litre rolling chassis and replaced it with the 270 cubic inches Bentley 4½. Still, the racing companion did not escape notoriety. This is how the “Blower” nickname came after engineer Amherst Villiers added a supercharger up front that was initially vetoed by W.O. himself. Still, history remembers but the fame, not the woes.
1929 Bentley Blower Continuation Series 25 photos
Photo: Bentley Motors
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As such, Bentley announced not long ago it managed to digitally recreate the schematics for all the components needed to remake the famed racer. And we are not talking in LEGO form. Instead, the British luxury automaker revealed it would embark onto an interesting journey that would end with the creation of the world’s first ever continuation series for a car from the pre-war era.

Now the company has also revealed its specialists have started work on the assembly of the first newish Bentley Blower in around nine decades. The Bentley Mulliner atelier is expertly taking care of the custom assembly of “Car Zero.” This will be the engineering mule for the production-run continuation series consisting of just 12 handcrafted supercharged 4½–liters (all of them have been spoken for, obviously).

They will all respect the same recipe – the Bentley Blower Continuation Series is a faithful replica of the 1929 example constructed and raced by Sir Henry (Tim) Birkin. So far, the workshop has only received the initial batch of crucial parts. Mulliner’s specialists have taken custody of the chassis, fuel tank, radiator, the ash frame for the body and even the first pair of headlights.

Of course, the most important absentee would have been the engine – but fortunately the company also had at hand the legendary engine, completely remade as an exact copy of the original along with a remade Amherst Villiers supercharger.

Next up, the company is setting up a development program that will kick off before the year’s end. The twelve lucky owners have begun selecting their preferred color or trimming, and the engineering team will continue assembling the prototypes.
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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
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Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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