Bentley absolutely dominated endurance racing in the pre-war era, winning Le Mans five times between 1924 and 1930. You might associate those wins with the famed Bentley Boys and the almighty “Blower Bentley,” but it may surprise you to learn a Blower never even finished a 24-hour event until last week. All of Bentley’s endurance success is owed to the naturally-aspirated three-liter, four-and-a-half-liter, and the ultimate Speed Six.
It took until 2024, during a Bentley-only race, for a Blower to actually finish a twice-around-the-clock endurance event. The Benjafields Racing Club recently hosted 25 period Bentleys, driven by 87 club members, to race for 24 hours at the Algarve circuit of Portimão. The event was intended to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bentley’s 1924 Le Mans victory. One of the participant teams of drivers entered a new-build Continuation Series car in the Benjafields 24 event and actually managed to find the finish line. Bentley does not indicate where in the field the new car finished, but has dubbed it “a defining moment for the Blower family and of the Continuation Series.”
Bentley commissioned in-house coachbuilders Mulliner to produce the Blower Continuation Series cars starting in 2019. Each car was built by hand using the original blueprints as a guide, along with 3D scans of the famous Team Car #2, UU 5872, the 1929 four-and-a-half-liter supercharged that took on the might of Rudolph Carracciola and the Mercedes-Benz factory squad in 1930.
The Blower gained a reputation for being fast but fragile, and never made it to the end of a big endurance race. While the 2024 Benjafields 24 is nowhere near as prestigious as winning Le Mans in the mid-1920s might have been, it’s pretty cool that some of the people who own these cars are still pushing them to the limit in 2024. And if you’re going to buy a continuation car and not at least attempt to run a full 24 hour event, what’s the point?
