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Jun 21, 2023

Blower Jnr is a street

The Blower Jnr will be available at Bentley dealerships across the US, UK and Europe The first all-electric Bentley has been revealed at Monterey Car Week in California – and it’s probably not what

The Blower Jnr will be available at Bentley dealerships across the US, UK and Europe

The first all-electric Bentley has been revealed at Monterey Car Week in California – and it’s probably not what you expected.

Instead of a battery-powered version of the Continental GT or Flying Spur, the Bentley Blower Jnr is the latest – and fully licensed – creation by UK startup The Little Car Company.

Based in Bicester, Oxfordshire, TLCC has also previously collaborations with Bugatti, Aston Martin and Ferrari to produce scaled-down, battery-powered replicas of some of the world’s most iconic cars. And for its latest EV, the company has a trick up its sleeve – because, for the first time, the Bentley Blower Jnr is street legal in the US, UK and Europe.

Thanks to electric quadricycle laws – and TLCC paying close attention to the rules when designing a replica of a 1920s race car – the scaled-down Bentley can be driven on the public roads.

A charge port sits where the original car had its supercharger

It is powered by a 15 kW (20 horsepower) motor hooked up to a 48V electrical system. The top speed is 45 mph (although limited to 25 mph for street use in the US, due to local legislation) and The Little Car Company says it has an estimated range of 65 miles.

There’s seating for two adults sat one behind the other, plus storage in a rear trunk fashioned out of what would have been the original car’s fuel tank. Inside you’ll find a custom bag made from the same leather as the seats.

The interior features a dashboard that looks just like the 1929 original, but instead has instruments repurposed for the electric drivetrain. The fuel pressure pump is instead a drive mode selector; the ignition advance control is used to select forward, neutral and reverse; the headlamps and turn signal controls copy the form of the original’s magneto switches; the battery charge gauge recreates the original ammeter.

The car is street legal in the US, UK and Europe

There’s even a discreetly concealed USB charge port and a dual-function display that serves as a Garmin navigation system and a reversing camera.

The first 99 examples will carry a livery inspired by Bentley’s own Supercharged Team Car No. 2, which belongs in the company’s own collection, is insured for over $30 million, and is one of the world’s most famous pre-war race cars. Incidentally, the ‘Blower’ part of the car’s name refers to its supercharger, which was added to a handful of Bentley’s 4.5-liter race cars by racing driver and notable Bentley Boy Sir Tim Birkin, in a bid to extract more speed.

Birkin persuaded Bentley boss Woolf Barnato to sanction 55 examples of the Blower, with just five allocated for competition and only four entered into races by the Bentley team itself. The cars entered 12 races, most notably when Team Car No. 2 competed in the 1930 Le Mans 24 Hours, and despite the Birkin Blowers failing to win a single race between them, they are arguably the most famous race cars of the era.

The Bentley Blower Jnr is 85% the size of the original 1929 racer

Back to the Blower Jnr, and where Birkin’s supercharger once protruded from the front of the engine, The Little Car Company has neatly fitted a battery charge port. Other modern modifications include Brembo disc brakes behind the front wheels, conventional three-point seatbelts for both occupants and a rear body structure made from carbon fiber instead of ash wood.

Retained period features include impregnated fabric covering the aforementioned rear frame, an aluminum hood held down by leather straps, leaf spring suspension and scaled-down friction dampers. The 99 First Edition cars also receive Blower Green bodywork, chassis and wheels to match the No. 2 car, hand-painted race numbers and Union flag, and a rope-bound steering wheel.

Priced from £90,000 ($115,000) plus taxes and shipping, production of the Bentley Blower Jnr First Edition will begin in the second quarter of 2024.