Bentley 4.5 litre Supercharged (Blower)
Registration Number UR 9155 (Hereford)
Chassis Number: HR3977
Engine Number: Unkown

Registration UR 9155
In addition to the four team cars mentioned above a fifth Birkin Blower was assembled but never had the oppertunity to race by the team before its disposal. It was constructed largely from parts of the No. 1 car when it was rebuilt as a single-seater and the No. 2 car when it received a short chassis. Number 5 was road registered UR 9155 and sold to David Cuthbert, a personal shooting friend of Birkin who lived at Beaufront Castle in Northumberland. The car was fitted with a revolutionary spring steel skeleton framed two-seater body, built by Vanden Plas, which had been fitted to the No. 1 team car for the 1929 500 Mile Race at Brooklands.It was next owned by Mark Struut a London based of London Estate Agents, Strutt & Parker, in 1940 who was later timed at 137mph on the Thetford to Newmarket road which was unofficially closed for the occasion by the army. The car then passed on to Grand Prix racing drivers, Jack Fairman in 1946 and Geoff Richardson, between 1946 and 1948 before passing to Alick Pitts in 1948.who raced it regularly later turning to Sprints, Hill Climbs and Rallies.

The Bentley changed ownership a further three times from the mid-sixties until 1999, competing in various VSCC and BDC events before it was bought by the late Bruce Spollon The car was last driven at a public event by his son, Guy, in the Brooklands Society Reunion in July 2001 and at the Shelsley Walsh Centenary in 2005.

Its inclusion in the Chateau Impney Concours d’Elegance was its first public appearance for almost a decade.

In Ian Flemings, James Bond novels James' purchases a Blower Bentley from Amherst Villiers and the car features in the books, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and Moonraker.

cars were produced, three road cars to race at Le Mans and a single seater for the track, mainly Brooklands. The large Rootes Supercharger was placed at the front of the engine and produced around 175bhp but with a huge thirst of between 2.3 to 2.8mpg. Reliability was a problem and the 1929 and 1930 Le mans 24hour races were won by the works 6.5litre normally aspirated Bentley. The Silver single seater track car did however achieve the outer circuit lap record of 137.96mph.

Woolf Barnato authorised Bentley to build 50 Blowers that enabled Birkin's prototypes to meet the Le Mans qualification. Sales were however slow and the London Bentley dealer Jack Barclay bought up the remaining sets of components following Bentley's bankruptcy.

In Ian Flemings, James Bond novels James' purchases a Blower Bentley from Amherst Villiers and the car features in the books, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and Moonraker.

"Alick Pitts adjusts his goggles prior to take-off in his blower 4½ at Brighton in the early 1950s."

"UR 9155. This Blower was owned for many years by Alick Pitts, a garage owner who lived in Streetsbrook Road near where we lived in Solihull. This picture was taken at Shelsley Walsh in 1955 on a demonstration run. My father W. Harold Wall noted that Alick "purchased the car from Birkin’s chief mechanic L C Mckenzie, 'Mac', in 1947." I have a number of tales to tell about Alick and his car and would love to relay those to its current owner. One tale worth telling at this stage is that Alick won FTD for a sports car at the Brighton Speed trials in 1950. He told me that he crossed the finishing line at 130 mph!"