New Kidston Trophy attracts world’s largest field of pre-war racers at the Silverstone Classic.

• New Kidston Trophy attracts world’s largest field of pre-war racers
• Bentley Boy Glen Kidston famously won Le Mans in 1930
• 12 classic Bentleys to compete at inaugural Silverstone Classic event

The largest field of pre-war race cars ever assembled will compete at the Silverstone Classic this weekend in the inaugural Kidston Trophy – named for legendary Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner, Glen Kidston.

Among the 57 competitors will be 12 of the rarest and most valuable Bentleys in the world. This stellar ensemble includes several Bentley 3 Litre models, and a collection of 4½ Litre racers including a legendary Supercharged ‘Blower’.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, they are rather old, and of not good size and initial quality.

Glen Kidston and Bentley Chairman, Woolf Barnato, famously won the 1930 Le Mans 24-Hour race in the Bentley Speed Six ‘Old Number 1’. This was the second year in succession that the Speed Six had taken the chequered flag and the fourth year in a row that a Bentley was victorious.

Richard Charlesworth, Director of Royal Relations & Heritage, said: “For one of Bentley’s most famous characters to be honored like this, at such a major classic car event, is wonderful. Kidston lived to race and his triumph at Le Mans alongside Barnato in 1930 will forever be remembered as the crowning glory of the Bentley Boys era.”

The Silverstone Classic takes place 24 to 26 July, with the Kidston Trophy contested at 12:00 on Saturday 25 July.

Glen Kidston: Bentley Boy

Adventurer and aviator Glen Kidston was one of the original Bentley Boys. A former Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, he was famously torpedoed twice in the same morning during World War 1.  He later became a submarine commander but when not at sea he set records as an aviator and motorcycle speed trialist.

Kidston died less than a year after his Le Mans win when the de Havilland Puss Moth he was flying crashed during a dust storm over the Drakensberg Mountains in southern Africa. A memorial to him stands at the crash site – an aluminium propeller set in stone designed to warn passing aviators.

Silverstone Classic – 25^th Anniversary

The annual Silverstone Classic is firmly established as ‘The World’s Biggest Classic Motor Racing Festival’. The packed weekend event features more than 20 races covering the full glittering spectrum of motor sport history, full scale live music concerts, aerial displays and interactive driving activities.

1930 failed "Bentley Boy" Mille Miglia, will, 85 years later have a second attempt, this time they will succeed.

• Historic Bentley takes on epic thousand-mile test of endurance
• This year marks 85 years since Birkin and Barnato’s aborted attempt
• 1930 4½-litre supercharged Blower one of just 55 ever produced

In 1930, ‘Bentley Boy’ Tim Birkin claimed his aborted attempt on the Mille Miglia in his legendary Blower was due to a lack of “due preparation”. 85 years on, Bentley has ensured all plans are in place for a successful Blower run in the 2015 event.

‘Bentley Boys’ the Hon. Sir Henry (Tim) Birkin and Bentley Chairman Woolf Barnato were to be the first British drivers to attempt the thousand-mile Italian test of endurance, in a supercharged ‘Bentley Blower’ known as the No. 2 ‘Birkin Blower’. 

According to contemporary media reports, however, ‘much disappointment was felt at the news of the Bentley withdrawal from the Brescia Thousand Miles Race’.

This year, Bentley’s original 1930 4½-litre supercharged Blower is aiming to finish what its sibling never started, taking on the world-renowned cross-country route between 14 and 17 May.

Director of Royal and VIP Relations, Richard Charlesworth, who will be piloting the historic Blower, said: “When the Blower was built in 1930 the Mille Miglia was uncharted territory for British racers. 

Some 85 years on and the Bentley is now a familiar sight – this year will be the Blower’s fifth entry. Last year we achieved the best result ever for Bentley, and this year we are hoping to continue that success.”

One of just 50 examples built for the road, the 85-year-old Blower features its original Vanden Plas Open Sports Four-Seat body. It was described by Autocar magazine in September 1930 as having ‘the appeal of immense power, linked with great docility’ – qualities the team will be hoping to exploit in Italy.

Built for racing, all Blowers featured the legendary supercharger installation developed by Amherst Villiers. The car running the Mille Miglia this year started life in 1930 as one of the company’s first showroom demonstrators, and is still performing eight decades on. 

With its classic British Racing Green livery and distinctive exhaust note, the Blower is one of the most instantly recognisable cars of all time.

The extraordinary Bentley “Blue Train” car to appear at Rétromobile 2015

• The extraordinary “Blue Train” car to appear at Rétromobile 2015
• The 1930 Bentley 6½ Litre Speed Six with Gurney Nutting coachwork, starts its 85^th anniversary in style

Bentley Motors is delighted to announce that the legendary Speed Six Bentley known as The Blue Train will celebrate the start of its 85^th anniversary with an exclusive first appearance at the Rétromobile Exhibition this week in Paris (Hall 1, Stand P43).

In 1930, Captain Woolf Barnato, Chairman of Bentley Motors, and also a true “Bentley Boy” having entered and won the Le Mans 24 hours three times, was staying in Cannes at the Carlton Hotel with his golfer friend, Dale Bourn. He accepted a wager that he could not only beat the Blue Train to Calais, as had been done before, but could be at his club in London before the train reached Calais.

On the day of the race, he finished his drink in the bar at the Carlton hotel when he heard the train had departed at 17.54. He had arranged for fuel stations to remain open through the night in Aix-En-Provence and Lyon, and a tanker lorry in Auxerre, and despite a puncture near Paris, he reached Boulogne with an hour to spare. 

He arrived at the Conservative Club in St James, London for a celebratory drink having passed the clock at Victoria Railway Station at 15.30 the next day, four minutes before the train was due to arrive in Calais, having averaged 43.43 mph driving on pre-motorway roads. He won the £100 wager, although the Automotive Club de France attempted to fine him £200 for an un-authorised race in France.

Richard Charlesworth, Head of the Bentley Heritage Collection, comments: “We are most grateful to Bruce McCaw for the loan of his legendary Bentley Speed Six. There are many exciting plans for the car to mark its 85^th anniversary, including a recreation of the original run from Cannes to London.”

The Speed Six evolved in 1929 as a racing version of the 6½ Litre, introduced in 1926. The first car raced as No 1 at Le Mans in 1929 where it won, and returned as ‘Old No 1’ to win again in 1930. A total of 182 Speed Sixes were built between 1929 – 1930 with a variety of body styles and types from several coachbuilders. Speed Six Chassis No HM 2855 was delivered to Bentley Chairman Woolf Barnato by Coachbuilder Gurney Nutting in May 1930. Barnato had many Bentleys personally commissioned to suit his requirements, all were bespoke, ‘one off’ vehicles.

In recent years evidence has come to light that suggests that although the car appeared in the Terence Cuneo painting of the race, it may be that it was in fact another Speed Six with a Mulliner Saloon body, also owned by Barnato, that actually accomplished the feat. It remains a mystery, the truth will never be known for sure, but this unique car remains one of the most striking, stylish and famous vintage Bentleys from that era.

Introduction first registered May 1930

Body Gurney Nutting Speed Six

Engine 6-cylinders, in-line; front; 100 mm x 140 mm, 6597 cc; compr 5.3:1; 180 bhp (134.23 kW) @ 3500 rpm; 27.8 bhp (20.34 kW)/L

Engine Structure 4-valves, double springs; 8-bearing camshaft, 3-throw coupling rod drive; cast iron cylinder block with stainless steel jacket plates; single port block; 2 vertical HVG5 SU carburettors; two champion plugs per cylinder; Bosch magneto and Delco-Remy coil; Autovac fuel system; 8‑bearing camshaft, with damper; water-cooled

Transmission rear wheel drive; sdp clutch; 4-speed C-Type gearbox, right hand change; spiral bevel final drive 3.53:1

Chassis pressed steel frame 0.188 in (4.77 mm), 7 cross-members; semi‑elliptic leaf springs; Bentley and Draper friction dampers; self-wrapping, Dewandre servo mechanical brakes, front Bentley-Perrot; 15.75 in (40 cm) drums; worm and sector steering; 25 gal (113.6 1) fuel tank; Dunlop tyres 21 x 6.00, rear 21 x 7.00; Rudge-Whitworth centre lock wire wheels

Dimensions wheelbase 140.5 in (356.87 cm), track 56 in (142.2 cm), length 187 in (474.9 cm), width 68.5 in (173.99 cm), ground clearance 7.25 in (18.4 cm), turning circle 47.5 ft (14.5 m)

Equipment Smith & Jaeger instruments, white figures black faces, German silver parallel-sided radiator shell; Green Label badges. Zeiss headlamps; Bosch electrics; Hobson fuel telegauge; brake vacuum gauge

Performance maximum speed 92 mph (147.7 km/h) – 100 mph (160.9 km/h), fuel consumption 15 mpg (18.83 l/100 km)

Price Chassis £1800

Production 1

Bentley Blowers to take part in 2014 Mille Miglia.

Bentley Motors is competing in Mille Miglia 2014 (15‑18 May) with two of the company’s famous 4 ½ Litre supercharged ‘Blowers’ taking on the 1,700 km route.

The 1930 Le Mans ‘Team Car’ once owned by Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, one of the most celebrated members of a group of British gentlemen racers known as the Bentley Boys, will be joined by a former company demonstrator Blower with its original Vanden Plas Open, Sports Four Seater body for this renowned race.

Even after nine decades on the road, this second Blower continues to delight customers and guests from around the world with demonstration drives during visits to Bentley’s Crewe Headquarters.

Both Bentleys have successfully completed the modern Mille Miglia challenge several times and, with their classic dark green livery and distinctive, rumbling exhaust note, they’re welcomed by the thousands of fans who line the route to support the drivers.

To celebrate the start of Mille Miglia 2014, the Bentley team will meet with customers and friends from the Bentley Drivers Club (www.bdcl.co.uk) in the city of Brescia on the afternoon before the race.

The pre-race gathering will see Bentley owners who have travelled from as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, the United States as well as the United Kingdom meet the Blowers and bring their own cars to create a unique line-up of machines bearing the famous Winged B emblem in Italy.

“We plan to see Bentley’s Blowers and their drivers off in style. There will be Bentleys from all eras, some of them extremely rare, in Brescia to mark the start of Mille Miglia and it should be a real celebration of great cars”, comments Steve Miller, Club Secretary of the Bentley Drivers Club.

Live updates from Mille Miglia 2014 will be provided over the course of the event via the Bentley Communications Twitter feed, @BentleyComms