Admin l Tuesday, Sept 22, 2020
CREWE, England – Bentley Mulliner said it is showcasing its new three-portfolio offering at this year’s Salon Privé, with global debuts of the new coach-built Bacalar and the new Continental GT Mulliner coupe, alongside a sneak preview of the partly restored 1929 4½-Litre supercharged ‘Blower’ Team Car.
As Bentley’s in-house bespoke and personal commissioning division, Bentley Mulliner now operates a trio of portfolios to deliver exceptional craftsmanship across the Bentley model range and beyond.
Speaking at Salon Privé Bentley’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Adrian Hallmark said the Mulliner has a rich history and expertise spanning centuries of coach building. “These qualities of fine craftsmanship and visionary design are still evident in Mulliner’s latest products. Mulliner’s mission is to respond to the requirements of the most discerning Bentley customers, providing iconic and unforgettable bespoke Bentleys.
“The three examples at Salon Privé demonstrate how traditional coach building can be reflected through contemporary techniques, sustainable materials and shows Bentley’s design capabilities like no other luxury car manufacturer today.”
The Bentley Mulliner Classic portfolio was introduced last year with the announcement at Salon Privé 2019 that Bentley’s 1929 Team Blower (reg No. UU5872) was to be reborn with a new build of 12 supercharged 4½-litre examples of the iconic car, each individually handcrafted by a team of specialists from Mulliner. Using a combination of generations of handcraftsmanship skills and the very latest digital technology, the 1929 Team Blower has provided a master example for 12 continuations – one for each race that the original fleet of four Team Blowers competed in.
To deliver this incredible Continuation Series – the first in history of a pre-war car – Bentley’s own Team Car was stripped to its individual components ahead of a sympathetic mechanical restoration.
Team Car No.2 was disassembled to its individual components, and each part catalogued and meticulously scanned in 3D to create a complete digital model of the entire car. Using the original 1920s moulds and tooling jigs, and an array of traditional hand tools alongside the latest manufacturing technology, 12 sets of parts are now being created, before Bentley’s skilled heritage technicians start to assemble the new Blowers. The 12 continuations – all already sold – will be identical wherever possible to the original – mechanically, aesthetically and spiritually – with only minimal hidden changes dictated by modern safety concerns.
With the engineering prototype for the Continuation Series now being built, the restoration of the Team Car is almost finished. The car has been mechanically re-commissioned with worn or damaged parts repaired or replaced, and the chassis and running gear have been given an extremely deep clean. The remaining work is to the ash-framed body, which requires some overly-worn areas to be restored. This work is due to be completed before Christmas.
Glyn Davies, Special Projects Leader at Bentley’s Mulliner division said the scanning of every component has taken many months and that it has provided the team with some really interesting discoveries.
“Team Car No.2 went through a restoration in the 1950’s where sadly, some parts had to be removed and replaced with new. When we were taking apart the front seats to understand the construction and its materials, we found a business card dated 1956 from the trimmer who had worked on the car. The card had been tucked inside a small purpose made secret pocket within one of the seat flutes – a true time capsule. This is something we would love to re-create with one of our business cards to continue that tradition.”
Further investigation also revealed that the chassis of the Bentley Blower was not symmetrical. “Without modern car building techniques, the engineers would have struggled to build a chassis which was perfectly symmetrical. We will be restoring Team Car No.2 to exactly how it would have been, but we will be building our 12 recreation cars to be perfectly symmetrical – there is no benefit or advantage to an asymmetrical chassis!”
