The world's largest collection of historic British cars
The world's largest collection of historic British cars
The Blower is a racing variant of the Bentley 4½ Litre with a supercharged engine. It was developed by Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin, one of the wealthy “Bentley Boys” who famously raced Bentleys to victory in the 1920s.
Birkin had been persuaded by independent engineer Amherst Villiers that supercharging the 4½ Litre Bentley would offer the extra performance he required for racing. Founder, W.O. Bentley, disagreed with adding a supercharger as he felt it would “pervert its design and corrupt its performance” but was overruled by Chairman Woolf Barnato who sanctioned the production of fifty of the supercharged cars. The supercharger was mounted at the end of the crankshaft, in front of the radiator, which gave the Blower its distinctive appearance.
This car is one of the fifty road-going Blowers and was used as a demonstration vehicle at the company’s offices in Cork Street, London. It was tested by The Autocar in 1930 and the following year appeared in the Gracie Fields film ‘Sally in our Alley’.
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