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Index |
The history of Supercharger
MS3926 and more |
Book extract: The
Spirit of Competition, By Dr. Frederick A. Simeone |
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The history of great racing Bentleys
is well known. From 1927 to 1930, they were unbeatable
in endurance racing, having won Le Mans during those
four years with, first, a 3-liter, then a 4½-liter,
and finally, the Speed 6 in 1929 and 1930. In an effort
to get even more horsepower from the great 4-cylinder
4½-liter car, supercharging was suggested, as
already used successfully by Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and
others. There is an oft repeated story that W.O. Bentley
himself opposed this method of getting additional power.
He favored increasing engine size. The story goes that
it was Sir Henry Birkin, sponsored by the Honorable
Dorothy Paget, to whom Mr. Bentley finally relented
and made the 50 obligatory cars for sale to the public,
as well as five special racing type cars.
The supercharger operates on Rootes principles, with
two synchronized twin lobe rotors. The boost given was
10 psi at 25 miles per hour in top gear and does not
exceed 11 psi at the highest engine speeds. With this
engine and a light single-seater body, the car established
the Brooklands Outer Circuit Record at 137.9 miles per
hour. These cars were impressive in their power and
speed, but were not yare and therefore unsuccessful
racing cars. Even in local British Racing Drivers Club
competition, they usually retired in the 500 mile race
with one noteworthy second place finish in 1930. Because
a supercharged Bentley traveled the fastest on the Brooklands
banked circuit, the "Blower" will forever
be a symbol of powerful British motoring. Its pyknic
image in Rexene-clothed, cycle-fender, bells-and-whistled
armor, with the ponderous blower menacing fore is an
icon of the manly British bolide.
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Serial Number: MS3926
This car was ordered by T.G. Moore and it was registered
in 1931, donned in a Vanden Plas-built special aluminum
tourer body. Specified on the original build sheet are
the design features that are still on the car. The doors
were to come down to the frame rails, not the skimpy
doors so commonly seen on Vanden Plas bodies. The running
boards were to be in line with the center of the wheel
hubs. The body was to be fully valanced, which means
the front fenders extended all the way down to the chassis
and, in addition, the frame rails were louver-covered
from front fender to rear fender. The body was to be
painted Le Mans Green with the matching upholstery and
a dark walnut dashboard.
T.G. Moore, who had just acquired Motor Sport as its
publisher, must have been very proud of his new car.
It is likely that he took it to a variety of events,
but the most notable one was outlined in page 383 of
Motor Sport, April 1931. He won the timed trial of the
Isle of Man with a speed of 62.33 miles per hour, which
was significantly better than the competitors. This
proud showing was probably repeated because, ultimately,
the car was re-registered in the Isle of Man while still
under Moore's ownership. Subsequently, it went through
several hands and it was discovered after the war in
Aylesbury by U.S. serviceman Robert K. Carter who shipped
it to the United States. Mr. Carter had every intention
of restoring the car, but as time went on, it became
obvious that this was not happening.
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Dr.
Frederick A. Simeone writes to Robert McLellan
"I've just spent some time with your
wonderful website, I am really impressed.
The amount of research you have done is
significant, and I see you have good support
from the Bentley community. I am sorry I
did not find the site sooner, but it was
mentioned in a recent
book I bought on the six-cylinder Bentleys,
and this led me to you."
"I wanted to fill in some information
on our blower car, MS3926. Reason I think
I should do this is because, through your
site, I was amazed at how few cars have
original engines, transmissions, and most
notably, bodies. It is really only a handful
of cars which I would consider preserved,
as defined in my book, the Stewardship
of Historically Important Automobiles.
As you know, there seems to be no disincentive
to putting new bodies on the car, mostly
fabric covered LeMans replicas, and otherwise
altering many of the original features.
These cars, my opinion, are somewhere between
replicas and good cars, although it is great
to have them on the road. As time goes on,
cars, historical significance will become
rarer and rarer, and there are few that
are preserved. That is why in my Museum
we only deal with cars with original bodies
and engines, and about a quarter of them
here are original, unrestored. They're getting
harder and harder to find.
About MS3926; car was ordered by TG Moore
who at the time was publisher of the Motorsport
Magazine. He ordered specifically from
VDP with a "fully valenced aluminum
body" with the doors coming down to
the frame rail, and the running boards in
line with the wheel centers. This apparently
was to relieve someone, probably a young
lady, from the embarrassment of having to
climb over those small doors so typical
for the sporting VDP cars. When discovered,
the car had all of the features listed in
the factory records and the body makers
report.
We received it as a complete car with the
body intact although the rear portion had
to be repaired. The wood on the running
board was also replaced. When we received
it, it had a non-original folding windscreen,
which had obviously been on the car for
a long time, since we have pictures of it
in England just after the War with a folding
windscreen. We did what I call a mixed restoration.
Since we are not chasing trophies at shows,
everything that could be kept in original
condition was preserved. Nothing was shined.
The original dashboard wood with
an extra hole was kept. Consequently, under
the hood, it does not look real fresh. On
the other hand, it did require paint and
upholstery and this was done to the original
colors as best we can determine. We did
replace the headlamps with the correct style.
A small repair was done on the corner of
the supercharger cover before it was painted.
Consequently have believe it is one of the
most original supercharged Bentleys around,
although it does not compare with at least
one on your list which is totally preserved
and in absolutely wonderful condition. I
can send more pictures if you are interested."
March 26, 2013
Dr. Frederick
A. Simeone has established a foundation
to preserve and display 54 selected cars
built 1909 and 1975. Opened in 2008, the
Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum was
recently voted "Museum of the Year"
by the International Historic Motoring Awards
at the ceremony in London. The museum is
located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
the web site is www.SimeoneMuseum.org
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We were looking for that nearly extinct beast, a Blower
with its original body; the majority of the survivors
were by then re-invented as boy racers. We bought her
from Mr. Carter in 1981 and started a restoration. The
car was in remarkably preserved condition though it
did not have top bows, (nor does it have them now).
Other than that, nothing was seriously missing. The
rear end had been cut back a bit, but this was easily
restored. Beyond this, all external metal was original.
There were no missing instruments. The original engine
and the D-type gearbox were intact and really did not
require much internal fettling, although they were refreshed.
The sump had to have repairs because oil had been laying
in it for decades and this ate through the metal in
some spots.
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The mechanical work was done by Jim
McHenry of the Ball and Ball Shop in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Jim and I had an excellent working relationship and
he understood exactly what had to be done. He did a
superb job on the engine and transmission. The work
on the rear of the body was easily finished and then
she was sent to Fred Hoch for paint. David George (of
D.L. George Coachworks), functioning in his usual versatile
way, managed to do a superb upholstery job exactly according
to Bentley standard. Today, she runs very well but is
no gem in the handling department. The heavy front end
resists crankling in contrast to the litheness of the
3-liter. But the sight and sound of the always exposed
blower prods the effort.
Driving Impressions: Supercharged Bentley
In the September 7, 1945 issue of The Autocar, the editor
had the pleasure of driving Woolt Barnato's 1930 supercharged
Bentley. He recalls, "I had a run in this car soon
after it was completed and it certainly had tremendous
punch, but in common with the company's own demonstration
model, it was inclined to boil in traffic and was prone
to rather a lot of spitting back from the supercharger
blow off valves. The works then fitted a compression
plate and Barnato took the car around to Brooklands
where exhaustive tests showed it to be much improved.
The speedometer went right round to 105 in top gear.
Despite the considerable weight of the car, acceleration
also proved to be pretty outstanding, 60 being obtained
from 10 miles per hour in about 15 seconds and 90 in
just about 45 seconds. The supercharger blew at a maximum
of about 10 pounds per square inch and made a very attractive
low whining sound when idling."
Four years previously, in the same magazine, a similar
blower Bentley was tested with a comment "this
example 'blower' struck me as a quite mild-mannered
machine. You could burble about with it in top gear
in an altogether surprising fashion, the engine turning
slowly on the very high ratio, about 3.3, as to make
it almost possible to count the explosion. It certainly
would tick over evenly at below the indicated 500 rpm.
As to starting, few strokes of the Ki-gass and it was
firing away."
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Posted on Apr 02,
2013 |
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Chassis no. MS3926
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Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photograph received from Simon Hunt for Chassis No. RL3439 |
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Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Dick Clay for Chassis No. 147 |
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Sep 29, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Ernst Jan Krudop for his Chassis No. AX1651 |
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Sep 28, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Lars Hedborg
for his Chassis No. KL3590 |
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Sep 25, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. XV 3207 |
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Sep 24, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. YM 7165 |
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