The Bentley Drivers Club annual race day at Silverstone promises to be the best yet.

The Bentley Drivers Club traditional annual Silverstone Race Day will take place on Saturday August 1st, with this year’s meeting being the Club’s 66^th consecutive event at the famous Northamptonshire circuit.

Known for its friendly and informal atmosphere, and a great favourite of competitors, marshals and spectators alike, ‘Bentley Silverstone’ has become a celebration of Club racing at its best, where all makes and models compete against each other in a fiercely amicable way.

On-track action for 2015 includes a Bentley Scratch race for pre-1966 cars, the pre-War Team Challenge and the Bentley Handicap race. Other marques will compete in the Aero Morgan Challenge Series, the MG ‘T’ Register, AC & Morgan Race and the Bic Healey Trophy & AC Team Challenge.

FISCAR will be keeping the spirit of Fifties sports car racing alive with a 30-minute pit stop race for one or two drivers, and two All comers races (Fast and Slow) and an Allcomers Scratch race including post-1966 Bentleys complete the programme.

It’s not just all the on-track on track action that makes BDC Silverstone a ‘must-do’ event for any Bentley enthusiast. Hundreds of non-racing Bentleys will also be on display and participating in the always-popular Club parade. This year the parade will mark special Bentley anniversaries for the S1, 60 years and Azure 20 years, and Continental GTs, fresh from their recent Continental Breakfast, will further swell the numbers.

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.