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1931 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged    
Original 1930 Numbers
Chassis No. SM3918
Engine No. SM3920
Registration No. GK 150

  This car - updated
Chassis No.
Engine No.
Registration No. GK 150

(Current owner / former owners, please come forward with further updates. - July 2019)
 
July 2019
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Photographs were taken at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 2019

 
     
     
  Source: Jeremy Rippon
Posted: Jul 26, 2019
 
     
2010
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Goodwood 2010

 
     
     
  Source: SuperCars
Posted: Nov 18, 2010
 
     
2009
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Retromobile Paris, 2009

 
     
     
  Source: GT Dreams
Posted: Aug 07, 2014
 
     
2009
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Retromobile 2009

 
     
     
  Source: Flickr user 'anhndee'
Posted: Nov 18, 2010
 
     
February 2009
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1930 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged
Billy Fiske was a remarkable character, a young multi-millionaire socialite who was a true Bentley Boy and a close friend of Tim Birkin. Fiske came to England as a Cambridge undergraduate spending his time on the continent bobsleighing, leading the USA bobsleigh team in the Winter Olympics at St Moritz in 1928 and setting a long-time unbroken Cresta run record.

In 1939, more than two years before the Americans entered the war, Billy Fiske (after pulling some strings with influential friends) joined the RAF, becoming the first American citizen to join the RAF after the outbreak of the hostilities. He was attached to 601 Squadron, also known as the ‘Legionnaires and Millionaires Squadron’ due to the fact that it had been founded in 1924 from volunteer members of London’s famous Whites Club. Flying Hurricanes out of Tangmere and quickly racking up many strikes against the formidable German Juncker 87’s, he was downed after only a month of active service, succumbing to severe burns at the Royal West Hospital in Chichester. The epitaph on his memorial tablet in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral reads ‘An American citizen who died that England may live’.

It was his friendship with Birkin that helped him secure the opportunity of acquiring a genuine Blower Bentley. Typically, he was not satisfied with just a normal Blower so Chassis SM 3918 was built to the specification of Birkin team car to include a fully split pinned chassis, long bonnet, 42 gallon fuel tank, Le Mans dash board, inboard adjustable brakes and oil tank as well as a quick release hood and windscreen. Once completed it was delivered to Fiske’s home in Paris in its original colour of Bentley Racing Green.

Fiske kept the Bentley until 1933 before, through W.O. Bentley’s brothers’ dealership H.M Bentley & Partners, selling it to Dr Apergis. Not a man to waste an opportunity, he soon stripped the Bentley down for high speed runs at Brooklands, bagging the much coveted Outer Circuit Banking Badge for achieving a top speed of 121.4mph. Apergis had, by this point, changed the Bentley from its original green to its current black and had removed the Le Mans underscuttle as well as the onboard oil tank as it was playing havoc with the stockings of his lady friends! The Doctor kept the car until 1936, Commander MacGregor of HMS Dolphin safeguarding the Bentley through the war before, in 1952, passing it into the long term care of Roy Stanwell.

It was over 50 years before the present owner acquired it directly from Mr Stanwell, entrusting its restoration to fabled marque expert Tony Townsend who had previously restored two of the three other Birkin team cars.

GK150 is offered here on the open market for the first time in its extraordinary life, providing the chance to acquire not just one of the original 50 Blower Bentleys but a Blower that was built to Birkin’s own full Le Mans specification. A unique and unheard of opportunity.

 
     
     
  Source: Gregor Fisken
Posted: Feb 11, 2009
 
     
2008
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BDC Concours, 2008

 
     
     
  Source: Russell Browne
Posted: May 11, 2013
 
     
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  Source: Gregor Fisken
Posted: Feb 11, 2009
 
     
2006
In England in 2006 / Owned by a BDC member
2002 - 2006
 

This car was owned by Roy Waltham Stanwell from 2002 to 2006.

We have received the following information from his daughter Ellen Stanwell:

"A small detail; my father Roy Waltham Stanwell never sold the car, but she passed to family after his death in Feb 2002. I reluctantly sold her privately some years later. My father's little red book of 50 years of mechanical info went with her. I was most upset to learn she had appeared on the open market. We have a number of family photos of her..."

 
     
     
  Source: Ellen Stanwell (Daughter of former owner)
Posted: Jun 14, 2012
 
     
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  Source: Gregor Fisken
Posted: Feb 11, 2009
 
     
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  Source: James E. Pearce
Posted: Jul 18, 2006
 
     
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  Source: Gregor Fisken
Posted: Feb 11, 2009
 
     
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  Source: Gregor Fisken
Posted: Feb 11, 2009
 
     
 

The first 25 production Supercharged 4½ Litre cars where Chassis Nos. SM3901-SM3925, all with "smooth-case" blowers. The next 25 were Chassis Nos. MS3926-MS3950 and had "rib-case" blowers.

Production Blower Bentleys had handbrake handles made from rectangular stainless steel, whereas the five 4½ litre race cars for Tim Birkin had the "H" section handle, but were drilled for lightness.

 
     
     
  Source: Robert McLellan
Posted: Feb 20, 2008
 
     
EARLIEST RECORD OF HISTORICAL FACTS & INFORMATION
 
Chassis No. SM3918
Engine No. SM3920
Registration No. GK 150
Date of Delivery: Sep 1930
Type of Body: 4-seater
Coachbuilder: Vanden Plas
Type of Car: 116
   
First Owner: HEATONT T
 
     
  More Info: According to original Vanden Plas Coachbuilder records, this car was originally fitted with Body No. 1685 with a supercharged; Le Mans Sports, long bonnet, to Vanden Plas sketch 539; 9/1930.

Michael Hay, in his book Bentley: The Vintage Years, 1997, states: "D/7224. Vanden Plas body no.1685. Le Mans type chassis, 42 gallon tank, split-pinned all round."
 
     
     
  Updated: Jul 06, 2007
Posted: Mar 01, 2007
 
     
 
 
 
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Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photograph received from Simon Hunt for Chassis No. RL3439
Sep 30, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Dick Clay for Chassis No. 147
Sep 29, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Ernst Jan Krudop for his Chassis No. AX1651
Sep 28, 2020 - Info and photographs received from Lars Hedborg for his Chassis No. KL3590
Sep 25, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. XV 3207
Sep 24, 2020 - Info and photograph added for Registration No. YM 7165
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