Oh, the smell. Sultry wafts of coal-fired smoke, laced with hints of hot metal, warm engine oil and lashings of grease. An impatient steam locomotive is a feast for the eyes, ears and nose. All eight tonnes of Samson, built in Colchester in 1926, are ready to haul the first train of the day.
The car alongside doesn’t pour any nostalgic odours into the morning air. It doesn’t make a sound. But it does look the part, because this is the latest work of Oxfordshire’s The Little Car Company, who I’ll be reporting to the Trading Standards offce because its new Bentley Blower Jnr isn’t little at all. It’s enormous. A half-tonne toy for 21st century Bentley Boys.
What we have here is a hand built, 85 per cent scale replica of the supercharged Bentley ‘Blower’ Le Mans car of the late Twenties. It’s an approved, authentic, fully operational electric homage to real life unobtainium. Bentley let TLCC scan
