How many Blower Bentleys are there?

[hammerwerfer]

I think there were eight of the beasts at am Tiergaten this evening! An impressive sight indeed. There was also a beautiful Lagonda.

[v12Aston]

I believe that 54 "Blowers" were made originally.

[arnage25]

Fifty of the Blower Bentleys (4-1/2 litres) were originally built by the company to fulfil the homologation requirement for Le Mans. WO was totally against the idea of supercharging to start with, but when his Speed Sixes were blown away (pardon the pun) by Tim Birkin in his privately developed supercharged 4-1/2, he had a bit of a rethink.

The story used to go around the Bentley Drivers' Club when I was a member that of those 50 original Blowers, 135 remain to this day .....

[v12Aston]

I dont want to be seen as a pedant but I think you will find that there were actually 55 built. My original post was a typo.

They originally built 5 specifically for racing and then built the further 50 "production" cars at Cricklewood, thereby satisfying the homologation.

[arnage25]

50 were built at Cricklewood to satisfy the homologation requirement, the other cars were built by Tim Birkin at his own works in Welwyn Garden City, not by Bentley Motors.

[micknall]

That's correct. 50 Blowers were built in total, along with four team cars, plus one spare.

And yes, it's true to say that the number has grown due to many older Bentleys being converted to blower-spec.

We still own one of the team cars (reg: UU5872) known as 'Number 2' which still leads a very active life at Bentley events.

Simon Hucknall
PR Manager
Bentley Motors Limited

[v12Aston]

Simon, how is life after Noble? I trust that Crewe is treating you well.

UU5872 is a superb car and Bentley Motors showed great "commitment" when they purchased it. No doubt Mr. Charlesworth is looking after it very well!