Bentley to take Blower back to the racetrack

Bentley announced that the first car of its Blower Continuation Series is poised to return to the race track in 2023.

Known as Car Zero, it is scheduled to partake in three events this year across Europe. The first will be in Donington Park, United Kingdom from April 29 to 30. It will be followed by a race in Le Mans, France from June 29 to July 3. Rounding up the calendar is a competition in Spa, Belgium from September 28 to 30.

“By going racing with Blower Car Zero, we will prove the performance, authenticity, and durability of our Continuation Series by taking on the original competition, and give our customers confidence that they too can take their continuation cars to the track. We’ve already proved the quality of the engineering within the car by completing a tough test of several hours at race pace around Goodwood, and it’s now time for the car to be unleashed for real racing. We’ll take the learnings from this race program and apply them to the upcoming Speed Six Continuation Series, for which the first engineering car is in build now,” said Bentley Mulliner Chief Technical Officer Paul Williams.

For those who do not know, Bentley’s Blower Continuation Series is the company’s first pre-war car collection. The automobiles from this collection are built by hand with information taken from modern laser-scanned data and original drawings.

Both the blueprints and the 3D data were taken from the 1929 four-and-a-half-liter supercharged Team Car #2 – the most famous Bentley in the world, and one of the icons of the Bentley Heritage Collection.

Of course, Bentley had to make minor modifications to the car’s original design before unleashing Car Zero on modern circuits. These, the carmaker explained, included a rain light, wing mirrors, towing points, a fire extinguisher, and a battery isolation switch.

The car also now holds a Historic Technical Passport, which certifies the car as eligible to compete in Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile-sanctioned events for historic vehicles.

Drivers for the race program will be confirmed soon and will feature a mix of experienced motoring journalists with racing credentials alongside professional racing drivers.

Photos from Bentley

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