Post by Bruce Partington-Plans on Aug 19, 2023 16:55:46 GMT
The 1929 supercharged Bentley 4.5-litre "Blower", created by famed Le Mans racer and Bentley Boy (& personal hero) Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin to [unsuccessfully] beat the 7-litre Mercedes SSK, is probably my favourite motor car of all time so I was somewhat surprised to find myself largely unmoved by the news that Bentley has created a £90,000 scale replica of said vehicle - powered by electricity.
I have no problem with Bentley trading on its past glories (and goodness knows they've done a lot of that - some more dubious than others - over recent years) and if they want to invest the time and energy into making updated scale copies of their most famous historic cars then good luck to them. I'm sure this Blower Junior will find ready buyers, of the sort who can afford this sort of frivolity but can't stretch to the £850k+ decent full-size replicas command (nor the £1.5m for Bentley's own continuation model) and who will probably use it as a private estate hack or local runabout. However, as nice as the idea seems I can't help thinking I'd feel a bit of ninny driving something only 85% the size of the real thing, forcing me and my passenger to sit one behind the other rather than side-by-side.
While I can also understand the engineering arguments for it, the electrification also leaves me cold. The conversion of full-size classics to electric is a [polarising] discussion for another thread, but suffice to say here it definitely doesn't suit the character of the car - even a modern, miniature recreation such as this. Taken all together, then, I am not totally sorry that this Blower Junior exists (although I still question the need, or even the desire, for it) and I hope that those at whom it is aimed and who will buy it enjoy it for what it is and the experience it may bring but I do not think it really adds anything at all to the history of the brand Bentley and the memory of those wonderful Bentley Boys - and Birkin in particular - who so heroically wrestled the originals around La Sarthe nearly a century ago.
I have no problem with Bentley trading on its past glories (and goodness knows they've done a lot of that - some more dubious than others - over recent years) and if they want to invest the time and energy into making updated scale copies of their most famous historic cars then good luck to them. I'm sure this Blower Junior will find ready buyers, of the sort who can afford this sort of frivolity but can't stretch to the £850k+ decent full-size replicas command (nor the £1.5m for Bentley's own continuation model) and who will probably use it as a private estate hack or local runabout. However, as nice as the idea seems I can't help thinking I'd feel a bit of ninny driving something only 85% the size of the real thing, forcing me and my passenger to sit one behind the other rather than side-by-side.
While I can also understand the engineering arguments for it, the electrification also leaves me cold. The conversion of full-size classics to electric is a [polarising] discussion for another thread, but suffice to say here it definitely doesn't suit the character of the car - even a modern, miniature recreation such as this. Taken all together, then, I am not totally sorry that this Blower Junior exists (although I still question the need, or even the desire, for it) and I hope that those at whom it is aimed and who will buy it enjoy it for what it is and the experience it may bring but I do not think it really adds anything at all to the history of the brand Bentley and the memory of those wonderful Bentley Boys - and Birkin in particular - who so heroically wrestled the originals around La Sarthe nearly a century ago.