I have just come back from Italy and visited Milan where the city car is a popular form of transport. Small and nimble they can park in tiny spaces and have no problem zipping along at city traffic speeds. Most popular was the Fiat Topolino and its sister car, the Citroen Ami.
These cars are perfectly suited to their environment but they are a bit…… boring.
If you are prepared to sacrifice practicality for a dash of style then the Bentley Blower junior might be just the job for you.
Bentley and Hedley Studios (formerly The Little Car Company) presents an array of configurable options for the 85 per cent scale, fully electric and road-legal recreation of Bentley’s legendary 1929 4½-Litre supercharged ‘Blower’. Finished in stunning Old English White exterior paint it has a Cricket Ball leather interior .
Customers can now visualise their individual specification via an all-new online configurator, enabling them to build and commission a Bentley Blower Jnr that is entirely bespoke and unique to them. With thousands of possible configurations including interior and exterior colours, the opportunities for personalisation extend to hand painted numbers and national flags added to the body.
Hedley Studios’ configurator for the Bentley Blower Jnr includes six carefully curated packs, each paying tribute to Bentley’s immersive and legendary history.
‘The Blue Pack’, for example, harks back to Woolf Barnato’s famous race against the Blue Train, from the Côte d’Azur to Calais, in which Barnato provided triumphant behind the wheel of his Bentley Speed Six.
In a similar vein, ‘The Grey Pack’ pays tribute to the Speed Six that took victory at Le Mans in 1929 and 1930, before being converted by Barnato into road-going coupé finished in a visceral gunmetal grey. Just 250 configurable models are available, which will take the total production run of the Bentley Blower Jnr to 349 worldwide after the success of the 99 limited First Editions.
Blower Jnr is a collaboration between Hedley Studios and Bentley’s Heritage Collection. The original Team Car from 1929 – insured for £25m – was used by Hedley Studios to master the design of Blower Jnr, with details recreated at a sizeable 85 per cent scale. The result is a vehicle that will have even experts looking twice – with the car measuring 3.7 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. Unlike Hedley Studios’ other products, Blower Jnr is fully road legal and designed specifically to be used on the road and is perhaps the most sophisticated city car ever built.
Crafted by hand to the same standards as any Bentley, and adorned with beautiful details all inspired by the original Team car, Blower Jnr is built around a 48V electric powertrain with a 15 kW (20 bhp) motor, meaning a top speed of 45 mph / 72 km/h in the UK and EU (25 mph / 40 km/h in the USA due to legislation) and an expected range of around 65 miles, with tandem seating for two adults.
The frame is painted steel, to which an authentic chassis specification is attached. Leaf springs and scaled-down, period-correct friction dampers bring a comfortable ride, while Brembo disc brakes at the front and drums at the rear provide the stopping power. The electric motor is mounted across the rear axle, while the batteries and drive electronics are all housed in a hidden undertray.
The bodywork is crafted in two sections, and while the rear body structure is crafted in carbon fibre rather than being an ash frame, it’s covered in impregnated fabric, just as the original. The bonnet, with its multiple cooling louvres, is hand-crafted in aluminium using traditional techniques and fastened with beautiful leather buckled bonnet straps. The two-person cockpit is in a 1+1 layout, with a central adjustable driving position and the passenger travelling behind in the rear seat. An optional bespoke weekend bag fits behind, in the scaled down and repurposed fuel tank complete with lockable latch.
At the front of the car, the supercharger now houses the charging port that connects the onboard charger to any Type 1 or Type 2 socket, and is surrounded by the famous Bentley mesh grille, in an authentic nickel-plated radiator housing.
At first glance the dashboard looks like a scaled-down replica of the original, with Engine Turned Aluminium forming the dashboard itself. The fuel pressurisation hand pump has been repurposed as the drive mode selector, with a choice of Comfort (2 kW), Bentley (8 kW) or Sport for maximum power of 15 kW. Forward, Neutral and Reverse are selected via a lever that looks and feels like the ignition advance control from the original Blower. Other switchgear for the headlights and indicators copies the form and materiality of the magneto switches from the Team Car, while the battery charge gauge recreates the original ammeter.
A USB charging point is discreetly concealed until required, and a dual-function display that serves as a Garmin satellite navigation screen and reversing camera completes the cabin.
You can configure your own car here https://configurator.bentleyblowerjnr.com/
More information on the Blower Jnr can be found at www.bentleyblowerjnr.com