Bentley Continuation Goes to Le Mans

The first car in Bentley’s controversial Blower Continuation series, known in-house as Car Zero, will be seen out racing in 2023.  Following a piece-by-piece disassembly of the 1930, #2 Team Car, part of the Bentley Heritage Collection, a precise laser scanning of the frame and its components led to the creation of a complete digital CAD model.  From there, specialists were recruited, to start manufacturing the components that Bentley Mulliner would bring together to form the first in a series of 12 continuation cars.  All of these cars have been pre-sold at an estimated £1.5m each.

Bentley Zero has been out for testing

The first car in the series is now being tested and is entered in the Pre-War race at the Donington Historic Festival and will also be seen mixing it with original Bentleys at Le Mans Classic.  Its final race of the season will be at the Spa Six Hours meeting, again in the MRL Pre-War race.  Bentley would not yet say who will be driving the car, at all the meetings, but Stuart Morley will be behind the wheel at Donington.

There has been some dissension amongst period 4½ Litre Blower Bentley owners, who say continuation cars will devalue both their ‘original’ cars and the history and prestige of the marque, while others have complained that the originality of the ex-Tim Birkin car in the Bentley Collection, from which the replicas are derived, has been destroyed by Bentley technicians when they rebuilt the original car using new parts.