Bentley may be known first and foremost for crafting the world’s finest bespoke luxury cars in-house at their home base in Goodwood, but they also have a long history of teaming up with other auto and tech outfits to create some truly mind-blowing collector’s pieces.
For their most recent project, Bentley has joined forces with The Little Car Company to make something truly unique: the electric Bentley Blower Junior, which is now officially available for Americans to purchase.
A Brief History of the Original Bentley Blower
Before we get into the Bentley Blower Jnr’s specs, let’s take a trip down memory lane to fully appreciate the legendary car that serves as the inspiration—when you picture the famous race cars of the pre-war era, the Blower is likely what you’re thinking of, even if you don’t realize it.
The classic “Blower” Bentley was a 4.5-liter supercharged affair, developed with the intention of taking first place at historic events like Le Mans and the French Grand Prix. In spite of its now-iconic status within the world of racing, its creation was fraught with conflict.
Around the mid-to-late ‘20s, Bentley was producing some of the largest cars in all of racing. To offset the weight problem and to keep up with the competition, W. O. Bentley and his team sought to create a bigger motor, which resulted in a 6.5-liter Speed Six model. However, famed driver and “Bentley Boy” Sir Tim Birkin had other ideas. Rather than upping the displacement and making the car even bigger, Birkin felt that slapping a supercharger on the existing model was the correct course to victory—the supercharger used at the time was known as a “blower,” which is where the name comes from. The founder of Bentley Motors himself vehemently opposed the idea of supercharging his vehicles, claiming it would compromise the integrity of the design. Birkin, however, was determined, and after a protracted battle, the “Blower” Bentley was approved to race at Le Mans.
Because of their supercharged performance and reduced weight, the Bentley Blower models were indeed faster out of the gate than the Bentley Speed Six, as well as most every other car it came up against. Unfortunately, the supercharger also meant that it burned gas at a much faster rate, and it was still far heavier than most of its competitors. The Bentley Blower performed admirably in a number of races, including earning second place at the 1930 French Grand Prix, but it never ended up earning a gold medal in an endurance race. Regardless, with Birkin’s skilled driving and the Blower’s imposing, one-of-a-kind profile, the supercharged Bentley racer firmly cemented itself in the hearts and minds of race fans for decades to come.
Everything You Need to Know About the Bentley Blower Jnr
When the Blower Jnr was unveiled to an exclusive audience at Monterey Car Week last August, news quickly spread, and it sent classic Bentley aficionados into a fervor.
The Bentley Blower Jnr is a faithful 85% scale recreation of the original ‘29 Bentley Blower, which to this day is recognized as one of the fastest and most powerful racers of its time. After designing and building an extremely exclusive run of Blower Continuation Series models in 2020, Bentley sought to reimagine the Blower for the modern era and enlisted the help of The Little Car Company to bring their vision to life.
The Little Car Company has quite the curriculum vitae in its own right, having worked with other luxury brands like Bugatti, Ferrari, and Aston Martin to craft small-scale electric replicas of legacy models. The Blower Jnr is built to exacting Bentley standards, and it marks the first time that LCC has produced a truly road legal city car.
Fans of Bentley’s Team Car No. 2 will immediately recognize the engineering and design cues of the Blower Jnr. Great care was taken to ensure that the production Blower Jnr resembled the original as closely as possible. It features a two-person cockpit with a side-by-side layout, and has many period-correct aspects—everything from the dashboard layout to the nickel-plated radiator housing harkens back to Bentleys of old. It’s also received many tasteful modern-day updates, including carbon fiber body materials, Brembo front disc brakes, and drive mode selector in place of the old-school fuel pressure pump.
It’s powered by a 48-volt electric powerplant and a 15-kilowatt electric motor, and has a total range of around 65 miles. Because of its intended use as a street legal urban prowler, it’s designed to reach a top speed of 45 miles per hour. But, if you live in America and plan to buy one, there is a catch: under U.S. legislation, the Blower Jnr is classified as a low-speed vehicle (LSV), and as such, models delivered to the U.S. are capped at 25 miles per hour.
Despite local laws raining on the parade a bit, the Blower Jnr is an undeniably cool collector’s item, and a potential must-have for true Bentley enthusiasts. Pricing for the Bentley Blower Jnr is currently around $115,000 bucks.
The Future of Electric at Bentley Miami
The Blower Jnr isn’t the only electric vehicle adorned with a Bentley logo—a new selection of electric Bentley models is right around the corner, with the first expected by the end of 2025. But, if you just can’t wait, worry not, because Bentley Miami has tons of hybrid Bentleys in stock, including the Bentayga Hybrid. Call us at (786) 577-5218 to learn about leasing a hybrid Bentley in South Florida today.
