Driving the Ex-Birkin Blower - 4½ Single-Seater Bentley

 

Some History and Road Impressions of Russ-Turner's Famous Brooklands Lap Record Car

 

"The Bentley was in grand inns, roaring very high round the Byfleet banking, dropping to the Fork in a puff of dust, clipping the verge of the Vickers' sheds and going on to the Members' banking each time with that characteristic and disturbing little snake that those who saw the car in action are not likely to forget. From the notorious bump it leapt some 70 feet clear of the Track, into the Railway Straight" — from a description of Birkin's first lap-record bid in 1930, as described in Chapter XX, page 219 of "The History of Brooklands Motor Course" by W. Boddy (Grenville, 1950).

 

 

The Blower-4½ single-seater Bentley with which the late Sir Henry Birkin, Bt. twice broke the Brooklands outer-circuit lap record, was very much in evidence at the time when I was a regular visitor to the Track. Its appearance raised anticipation to high levels, because it was one of the fastest cars racing, effectively taking the place of the legendary aero-engined monsters of an earlier decade. To see the slight figure of the Baronet taking this long, slim, blue (later red) Bentley round the bankings was indeed exciting, his polka-dot scarf streaming out behind his helmet and the big car snaking viciously over the bumps.

 

From which it can be seen that I was an avid admirer of this combination of man and machine. I used to watch it in most of its races but on one occasion, when the offer of a holiday with friends in the New Forest in a 9/15 Renault fabric saloon proved a counter-attraction, I can still recall how on the Bank Holiday Monday my thoughts were far away and how earnestly I tried without success to obtain an evening paper, to discover whether or not Birkin had again broken the lap-record.

 

 

This individual Bentley began as one of the supercharged 4½-litre sports-racing four-seaters which Birkin favoured when he was building the racing team sponsored by the Hon. Dorothy Paget, although W.O. Bentley preferred to stake his faith in the Speed Six. It was later given a two-seater fabric body for the 1929 BRDC 500-Mile Race but retired when the fabric caught alight. It was during the winter of 1929/30 that it was rebuilt as a track car in the form with which we are here concerned. The 10 ft. 10 in. wheelbase chassis had its front brakes removed. It was chassis No. HB 3402 and the engine, which was the very first blower-4½ litre power unit, was No. SM 3901. The car was prepared in the workshops of Henry Birkin and Cooper Ltd. at Welwyn Garden City and a single-seater body was designed for it by Reid Railton and built by A. P. Compton & Co. of Merton. Originally a cowl was fitted to the scuttle to deflect air over the driver's head but Birkin apparently couldn't see over it and it was soon replaced by an aero-screen.

 

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