Chassis No: MS 3928
Engine No: SM 3921
The ‘Blower’ was originally conceived by heroic racer, Tim Birkin in a quest to build the ultimate Bentley competition car. Adding a Supercharger to the 4½ litre dramatically increased its performance, elevating the output from 110 to 175 horsepower. This was enough to carry Birkin to second place in the 1930 French Grand Prix, covering 247 miles at an average of speed of 88.8 mph. However, only victory at Le Mans was really of any significance to the ‘Bentley Boys’. Birkin had already tasted victory there in 1929, sharing a Speed Six with Woolf Barnato and for 1930 the company was fielding a team of two Speed Sixes and two ‘Blowers’. To participate in the world’s greatest endurance race the company was required to build 50 production cars to support the homologation of the team for Le Mans.
Chassis MS 3928 is one of the few, an original Supercharged 4½ Litre, the 28th built and from a production run of only 50 cars.
The chassis was completed in December 1930 and it was despatched shortly after to Gurney Nutting for coachwork. It was fitted with a sporting two seat drophead body and delivered to its first owner in March 1931. Marque expert, Clare Hay has inspected the car, researched its history and her report includes a letter from Squadron Leader William Kent who declared it “magnificent, despite lacking creature comforts”. All of the car’s owners are documented and in 1966 it was bought in poor condition by American enthusiast, Charles Noble. The car remained in the UK and was eventually restored to Le Mans specification by Elmdown Engineering.
At some point the cars original D Type gearbox was swapped out and during the restoration a C Type box from a Speed Six (Chassis HM 2867) was fitted. Clare Hay has of course tracked down the original and this is currently in Blower MS 3927. She succinctly sums this up stating, “This sort of swapping around of parts appears to be common for Blowers worked on by Townshend in the 1960s”.
In any event, the restoration was completed by 1987 and the car was shown at the Bentley Drivers Club Concours in Kensington Gardens. Shortly after this Noble took the car home to America and was to keep it for there for 58 years. At one point he owned four Blower Bentleys.
MS 3928 returned to the UK in 2024 and has been re-registered on its original number of FG 6667. It is offered for sale fitted with a rebuilt John Bentley engine, correctly stamped SM 3921 as fitted from new. The original magnesium alloy crankcase accompanies the car.
This is a rare opportunity to acquire one of the fifty original Supercharged cars at a Super-realistic price. It was built in the famous Cricklewood factory under the withering gaze of W.O. Bentley himself. It is a proper old ‘Blower’ certified by a report from the un-impeachable marque expert, Clare Hay. It has documented provenance and history, matching numbers and its original registration number. Remarkably it has even retained its original handbook.
