EVERY ONE OF us remembers our formative motoring encounters. Mine happened more than 30 years ago, when I was overtaken on the M1 by a vintage Bentley stonking along at what must have been (in those less censorious days) a good 90mph. What made it all the more memorable was that the lone occupant was a middle-aged lady, who I’m now convinced was the noted vintage racer Anne Shoosmith. I thought she just looked the coolest person in the world, ever.
That experience comes to mind as I round a banked turn at the Millbrook Test Facility at the wheel of another vintage Bentley, cruising at an easy 70. There is clearly more, much more, in reserve – but that should come as no great surprise, since this particular Bentley is a genuine ‘works’ team car that raced at Le Mans in 1930. While this driver certainly doesn’t look as cool today as Mrs Shoosmith did when she was parting the Sierras and Cavaliers on Britain’s then-busiest motorway, the car is positively sub-zero: it’s Tim Birkin’s personal ‘Blower’ Bentley 4.5-litre, which has been owned by Bentley Motors since 2000.
The reason we’re at Millbrook is because Bentley wants us to compare this most significant of Blowers with a brand-new version, the Car Zero prototype that is the forerunner of the dozen Blower Continuations currently in production. The project was announced back in 2019 and the first customer cars are now being delivered. Bentley had no problem finding buyers very quickly for all 12, and nearly all of them were existing customers keen to experience ownership of a Blower, only 54 of which were built: 50 road
