Nothing lasts forever. That may be true but can you bring back a racing legend that is more than 90-years old? That is exactly what British auto manufacturer Bentley is attempting to do by bringing back its 4.5-litre Supercharged Tourer, or better known as the Bentley Blower, back into production through the use of modern 3-D Printing techniques.
While it never won an endurance race, the Blower Bentley was the outright fastest race car of the day, and counted amongst its fans the author Ian Fleming – who later decided that his famous fictional secret agent James Bond would drive a supercharged 4½-litre Bentley, with the often-associated rival British sports car merely the MI6 “pool carâ€
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Using a combination of generations of handcraftsmanship skills and the very latest digital technology, the 1929 Team Blower will be the luxury car maker’s first pre-war race car continuation series. Impressively, Bentley aims to build 12 of the iconic cars with 3D-printers as a homage to the four original cars and will be sold to 12 lucky customers who want to own a piece of Bentley’s history.
The process begins with the disassembly of Bentley’s own Team Blower, with all its individual components catalogued and meticulously scanned in 3D to create a complete digital model of the entire car. Bentley’s skilled heritage technicians will then assemble the 12 new Blowers with only minimal hidden changes dictated by modern safety standards.
The original car will then be reassembled, with the heritage team taking the opportunity to complete a detailed inspection and sympathetic mechanical restoration where required.
As continuations of the original Team Blower, each of the new Continuation Series cars will feature four-cylinder, 16-valve engines with an aluminium crankcase with cast iron cylinder liners and non-detachable cast-iron cylinder head. The supercharger will be an exact replica of the Amherst Villiers Mk IV roots-type supercharger, helping the 4398 cc engine to develop 240 bhp @ 4,200 rpm. The car’s structure will be a pressed steel frame, with half-elliptic leaf spring suspension with copies of Bentley & Draper dampers. Recreations of Bentley-Perrot 40 cm (17.75â€) mechanical drum brakes and worm and sector steering complete the chassis.
It will take Mulliner approximately two years of meticulous work to complete the 12-car series. Prices will be revealed on application.
