The first car from the Bentley Blower Continuation Series – known as Car Zero – is taking on a programme of historic races in 2023, including Le Mans
Bentley has announced that the first of its Bentley Blower Continuation Series cars is set to race during the 2023 historic motorsport season. Effectively a three-race shakedown for the revived model, Bentley’s effort will see the first car off the line – Car Zero – taking to the track at the Donington Historic Festival (29–30 April), Le Mans Classic (29–3 July) and the Spa Six Hours (28–30 September).
Bentley points out that the car will be returning to Le Mans some 93 years after it first competed at Circuit de le Sarthe, and that the Blower’s return represents the first Bentley works model to take on the famous French circuit since the famous Speed 8 in 2003.
Bentley claims that the Blower Continuation Series is ‘the first pre-war continuation series ever created’. Built by hand using a both modern laser-scanned data and original drawings, the Continuation Series cars are based on the 1929 4½-litre supercharged Team Car #2 which currently forms part of the Bentley Heritage Collection.
Although created for racing in its original form, the Blower has had to undergo some modifications to race in the modern age. These include a rain light, wing mirrors, towing points, a fire extinguisher and battery isolation switch. The car is now FIA approved for historic racing thanks to its Historic Technical Passport.
Car Zero is the first of 13 Blower Continuation Series cars in total so far: eight have been delivered and four are in productinon. Each customer car has been commissioned through Mulliner, Bentley’s bespoke and personalisation division, with some customer cars set to compete alongside Car Zero – and the original 1920s Bentley Team cars – at the Le Mans race in July.
Ahead of its hectic race schedule, Car Zero was subjected to a six-hour enduance test at race pace around the Goodwood circuit in West Sussex at the hands of Stuart Morley. A total of 380 hard miles were covered at an average speed of 83mph.
“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,” said Paul Williams, chief technical officer at Mulliner. “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.”
Car Zero’s race programme will inform the next Continuation Series from Bentley: “We’ll take the learnings from this race programme and apply them to the upcoming Speed Six Continuation Series, for which the first engineering car is in build now,” Williams confirmed.
