A second-hand car with a difference will soon come up for auction, and it is anticipated that it could become Britain’s most expensive car ever sold.
The vintage Bentley is not your average ‘one lady owner’ classified however. Two distinguished gentlemen have lovingly cared for this souvenir of the Belle Époque. The car in question is a 1929 4.5 litre, 240 bhp, Bentley Blower. What is astonishing about this red Bentley is that when raced by its first owner Sir Henry ‘Tiger Tim’ Birkin, it set the lap record at Brooklands Outer Circuit in 1931 after reaching a blistering 137 mph. Reaching 60 mph in an amazing, for its day, eight seconds, the car was originally capable of a top speed of 106 mph, until it was supercharged under the ownership of Sir Henry Birkin, and then the magic truly began. The manual, four-speed, rear-wheel drive car set the pace for the rest of the pack to follow.
It was raced in the heady days of Brooklands when ‘Tiger Tim’ was one of the most famous of the rock stars of the day, the Bentley Boys. They were the group of wealthy men who raced all the latest British sports cars in the 1920s and 30s.
It is part of a collection of cars being auctioned from the estate of the late George Daniels, himself renowned as quite possibly Britain’s most eminent watchmaker. The portfolio goes under the hammer by Bonhams, on 29th June at Goodwood Festival of Speed, and is expected to garner in excess of eight million pounds. Whilst the collection of seven cars and two bikes includes a 1908 Formula One car and an ex-Maharaja of Bhavnagar’s 1929 4 litre Bentley Tourer by Vanden Plas, the draw card is most definitely the racing Bentley.
It is tipped to become the most expensive British car sold publicly, if it reaches the £5 million pounds anticipated. This would break the £3.5 million paid for a 1904 Rolls Royce, when adjusted for inflation, sold in 2007.
Both men loved the car, and their presence is certainly felt on this incredible masterpiece. Whilst only 54 of the cars were made in the three years of its production, there is no doubt that its former owners add to the prestige, and price tag, of the Blower. George Klepp, a vintage Bentley consultant said that ‘cars raced by Birkin are highly sought after and stay in very serious long-term ownership’.
Sir Henry Birkin, whilst being a playboy racer of the jazz age, died tragically at the age of 36 after a burn he obtained from a race-hot exhaust pipe gave him septicaemia. His iconic Bentley was later bought by the groundbreaking horologist George Daniels, who owned it until his death last year. Classic car enthusiast Daniels loved the Bentley, describing that ‘for all its inconvenience it is a most exhilarating car to drive both on the road and track.’ It was only a single-seater, and had no room for luggage storage.
Obviously Daniels had an eye for superb engineering and immaculate timing. Recognised as one of the few contemporary watchmakers who could create a supreme watch from idea generation to finished masterpiece, he only made one hundred pocket and wrist watches, at an investment of around 2,500 hours of work. Legendary as the creator of the co-axial escapement, the driver of the timekeeping mechanism, he is seen as the father of the most important horological development for 250 years.
With such eminent and loving owners as these two leaving their caress upon this beautiful Bentley, it is likely that the next lucky owner will truly be the caretaker of an amazing piece of motoring history.