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04 June 2012
Iconic Bentley Blowers at the great Mille Miglia adventure
W.O. Bentley's gift for creating cars that combined the speed of a thoroughbred racing machine with an enviable reputation for strength and comfort, allowing them to effortlessly cover hundreds of miles, is set to be underlined once again at the 2012 Mille Miglia when two 4½ litre Bentley Blowers take on the classic 1,000 mile endurance test.
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| Bentley Blower at the Mille Miglia parade |
(Crewe, England & Brescia, Italy.
16 May, 2012) W.O. Bentley's gift for creating cars
that combined the speed of a thoroughbred racing machine
with an enviable reputation for strength and comfort,
allowing them to effortlessly cover hundreds of miles,
is set to be underlined once again at the 2012 Mille
Miglia when two 4½ litre Bentley Blowers take
on the classic 1,000 mile endurance test.
Despite having a combined age of over 160 years, the
Bentley Blowers are showing no signs of slowing down.
The 4½ litre Supercharged 'Birkin Blower' (Chassis
no. SM3917)
— raced extensively by the legendary Le Mans winner
and Bentley Boy Tim Birkin — has already successfully
completed the Mille Miglia in 2005 and 2011.
The Birkin's companion car is one of 50 Blowers (Chassis
no. HB3403)
built for road use and still appears at Bentley events
around the world. It started life in 1930 as one of
the company's first showroom demonstrators and is still
performing its fair share of 'test drives' eight decades
later. Rolf Frech, Bentley's Member of the Board for
Engineering, who is leading the Bentley team at the
Mille Miglia comments:
"It is a privilege for the team to drive these
remarkable cars at the Mille Miglia as they embody so
many of the qualities that set Bentley apart from other
marques and W.O. Bentley's brilliance as an engineer.
We look forward to driving another thousand miles and
setting a decent pace in the true Bentley tradition."
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| Bentley Blower heading for Mille Miglia |
A 1954 company-owned R-Type Continental
has also made the journey from England to Italy. Widely
regarded as one of the most elegant cars to have sported
Bentley's distinctive 'Winged B' emblem, the R-Type
was also the world's fastest four seat luxury saloon
when it was launched in 1952 (delivering a top speed
of 115mph) and this year marks the car's 60th Anniversary.
The best of Bentley's motoring past will be accompanied
across Italy by two modern Crewe-built cars — the
6.0 litre W12 Continental GT coupe and the recently
launched 4.0 litre V8 GTC convertible - which are playing
a pivotal role in cementing Bentley's position as one
of the world's leading luxury carmakers.
Combining exhilarating levels of performance with all
the advantages of a highly sophisticated all-wheel drive
system as well as luxurious, handcrafted cabins, today's
Bentley Continentals uphold the marque's reputation
for building cars that can cover great distances quickly
and with supreme ease.
| Click for larger view | ||
 Bentley Blower before the Mille Miglia begins |
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 The classis 1,000 mile challenge begins. The Bentley Blower at the Mille Miglia |
 The Bentley Blowers at the middle of an expectant crowd at the Mille Miglia |
 The 'Birkin Blower' on the road to Mille Miglia |
 The Bentley Blowers finishing stage one of the Mille Miglia |
Combined with a new close-ratio 8-speed automatic transmission, this translates into a 0-60 mph sprint time of 4.7 seconds for the GTC convertible and a top speed of 187 mph (303 km/h). At the same time, the new V8 achieves outstanding levels of fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions for the luxury sector and is capable of travelling over 500 miles (800 km) on a single tank of fuel.