At the Simeone Museum, Aug 2010

Commonly we use the measurement "0-60" to indicate the time duration to reach that velocity from a standing start. Timed trials were popular in England and measured the ability of a car to accelerate quickly, much the same as drag racing today.

The Bentley shown here won the Isle of Man Time Trials in 1930. It is a supercharged model of which only 50 were made available for sale to customers. This car is one of the few that retains its original body.

1930 Bentley 4½ Liter Supercharged

The history of Supercharger MS3926 and more
The history of great racing Bentleys is well known. From 1927 to 1930, they were unbeatable in endurance racing, having won Le Mans during those four years with, first, a 3-liter, then a 4½-liter, and finally, the Speed 6 in 1929 and 1930. In an effort to get even more horsepower from the great 4-cylinder 4½-liter car, supercharging was suggested, as already used successfully by Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and others. There is an oft repeated story that W.O. Bentley himself opposed this method of getting additional power. He favored increasing engine size. The story goes that it was Sir Henry Birkin, sponsored by the Honorable Dorothy Paget, to whom Mr. Bentley finally relented and made the 50 obligatory cars for sale to the public, as well as five special racing type cars.

The supercharger operates on Rootes principles, with two synchronized twin lobe rotors. The boost given was 10 psi at 25 miles per hour in top gear and does not exceed 11 psi at the highest engine speeds. With this engine and a light single-seater body, the car established the Brooklands Outer Circuit Record at 137.9 miles per hour. These cars were impressive in their power and speed, but were not yare and therefore unsuccessful racing cars. Even in local British Racing Drivers Club competition, they usually retired in the 500 mile race with one noteworthy second place finish in 1930. Because a supercharged Bentley traveled the fastest on the Brooklands banked circuit, the "Blower" will forever be a symbol of powerful British motoring. Its pyknic image in Rexene-clothed, cycle-fender, bells-and-whistled armor, with the ponderous blower menacing fore is an icon of the manly British bolide.

Serial Number: MS3926
This car was ordered by T.G. Moore and it was registered in 1931, donned in a Vanden Plas-built special aluminum tourer body. Specified on the original build sheet are the design features that are still on the car. The doors were to come down to the frame rails, not the skimpy doors so commonly seen on Vanden Plas bodies. The running boards were to be in line with the center of the wheel hubs. The body was to be fully valanced, which means the front fenders extended all the way down to the chassis and, in addition, the frame rails were louver-covered from front fender to rear fender. The body was to be painted Le Mans Green with the matching upholstery and a dark walnut dashboard.

T.G. Moore, who had just acquired Motor Sport as its publisher, must have been very proud of his new car. It is likely that he took it to a variety of events, but the most notable one was outlined in page 383 of Motor Sport, April 1931. He won the timed trial of the Isle of Man with a speed of 62.33 miles per hour, which was significantly better than the competitors. This proud showing was probably repeated because, ultimately, the car was re-registered in the Isle of Man while still under Moore's ownership. Subsequently, it went through several hands and it was discovered after the war in Aylesbury by U.S. serviceman Robert K. Carter who shipped it to the United States. Mr. Carter had every intention of restoring the car, but as time went on, it became obvious that this was not happening.

We were looking for that nearly extinct beast, a Blower with its original body; the majority of the survivors were by then re-invented as boy racers. We bought her from Mr. Carter in 1981 and started a restoration. The car was in remarkably preserved condition though it did not have top bows, (nor does it have them now). Other than that, nothing was seriously missing. The rear end had been cut back a bit, but this was easily restored. Beyond this, all external metal was original. There were no missing instruments. The original engine and the D-type gearbox were intact and really did not require much internal fettling, although they were refreshed. The sump had to have repairs because oil had been laying in it for decades and this ate through the metal in some spots.

The mechanical work was done by Jim McHenry of the Ball and Ball Shop in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Jim and I had an excellent working relationship and he understood exactly what had to be done. He did a superb job on the engine and transmission. The work on the rear of the body was easily finished and then she was sent to Fred Hoch for paint. David George (of D.L. George Coachworks), functioning in his usual versatile way, managed to do a superb upholstery job exactly according to Bentley standard. Today, she runs very well but is no gem in the handling department. The heavy front end resists crankling in contrast to the litheness of the 3-liter. But the sight and sound of the always exposed blower prods the effort.

Driving Impressions: Supercharged Bentley
In the September 7, 1945 issue of The Autocar, the editor had the pleasure of driving Woolt Barnato's 1930 supercharged Bentley. He recalls, "I had a run in this car soon after it was completed and it certainly had tremendous punch, but in common with the company's own demonstration model, it was inclined to boil in traffic and was prone to rather a lot of spitting back from the supercharger blow off valves. The works then fitted a compression plate and Barnato took the car around to Brooklands where exhaustive tests showed it to be much improved. The speedometer went right round to 105 in top gear. Despite the considerable weight of the car, acceleration also proved to be pretty outstanding, 60 being obtained from 10 miles per hour in about 15 seconds and 90 in just about 45 seconds. The supercharger blew at a maximum of about 10 pounds per square inch and made a very attractive low whining sound when idling."

Four years previously, in the same magazine, a similar blower Bentley was tested with a comment "this example 'blower' struck me as a quite mild-mannered machine. You could burble about with it in top gear in an altogether surprising fashion, the engine turning slowly on the very high ratio, about 3.3, as to make it almost possible to count the explosion. It certainly would tick over evenly at below the indicated 500 rpm. As to starting, few strokes of the Ki-gass and it was firing away."

 

The first 25 production Supercharged 4½ Litre cars where Chassis Nos. SM3901-SM3925, all with "smooth-case" blowers. The next 25 were Chassis Nos. MS3926-MS3950 and had "rib-case" blowers.

Production Blower Bentleys had handbrake handles made from rectangular stainless steel, whereas the five 4½ litre race cars for Tim Birkin had the "H" section handle, but were drilled for lightness.

"Greetings Robert,

Just today I received a note from someone who tracked down the original owner of my Blower Bentley.
He was T.G. Moore who had just purchased Motorsport Magazine.
A Bugatti friend, Mark Morris found his son and the correspondence below was sent a few minutes ago as he promises to send along copies of whatever info survives. If it is of interest I shall pass it on to you.
Thank you for acknowledging my small contribution to you stories"

"About MS3926; car was ordered by TG Moore who at the time was publisher of the Motorsport Magazine. He ordered specifically from VDP with a "fully valenced aluminum body" with the doors coming down to the frame rail, and the running boards in line with the wheel centers. This apparently was to relieve someone, probably a young lady, from the embarrassment of having to climb over those small doors so typical for the sporting VDP cars. When discovered, the car had all of the features listed in the factory records and the body maker’s report.

We received it as a complete car with the body intact although the rear portion had to be repaired. The wood on the running board was also replaced. When we received it, it had a non-original folding windscreen, which had obviously been on the car for a long time, since we have pictures of it in England just after the War with a folding windscreen. We did what I call a mixed restoration. Since we are not chasing trophies at shows, everything that could be kept in original condition was preserved. Nothing was shined. The original dashboard wood — with an extra hole was kept. Consequently, under the hood, it does not look real fresh. On the other hand, it did require paint and upholstery and this was done to the original colors as best we can determine. We did replace the headlamps with the correct style. A small repair was done on the corner of the supercharger cover before it was painted. Consequently have believe it is one of the most original supercharged Bentleys around, although it does not compare with at least one on your list which is totally preserved and in absolutely wonderful condition. I can send more pictures if you are interested."

"A brief Pathe News film clip with some nice shots of this car which can be found here.