Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin's Blower Bentley

Racing at The Brooklands

TGR Staff

Back in an era racing drivers wore ties and racing was truly a sport of gentleman, a small group known as "Bentley Boys" Woolf Barnato, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, steeplechaser George Duller, aviator Glen Kidston, automotive journalist S.C.H. "Sammy" Davis, and Dr. Dudley Benjafield were pushing Bentley to new records, and win after win at LeMans.

Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin

In 1929 Sir Birkin developed a lightweight supercharged "Blower Bentley" that would become the first of 5 Birkin specials. W.O. Bentley said "to supercharge a Bentley engine was to pervert its design and corrupt its performance.", but Birkin wanted to push the envelope of speed. Recently one of Birkin's creations a 4 ½ Litre Supercharged ‘Blower’ single-seat racing machine returned to record-breaking form by reaching a sale price of £4.5 million when auctioned by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

This car his second 'Blower' was a record holder long before the auction, in 1932 Birkin set a record 137.96mph (219.93kmh) at Brooklands. At the time he described the ride as “there are bumps which jolt the driver up and down in his seat and make the car leave the road and travel through the air,” said Birkin.

Source: Bentley