The Little Car Company has built an amazing reputation over the years by handcrafting detailed, scaled-down reproductions of iconic classic cars. Their latest launch, this new junior version of the Bentley Blower racecar, might be their most perfect release to date. The Bentley Blower is one of the most legendary racers ever built, a gargantuan beast of a machine, it’s a roaring racing giant, both figuratively and literally. It cemented its place in history not only by sheer weight of metal but also by placing 2nd in the 1930 French Grand Prix at Pau race against a field full of Bugattis. It was enough for Ettore Bugatti himself to state quite plainly: Mr Bentley – he builds fast trucks.
Fast forward to today and the legendary Blower, specifically Team Car No. 2, has a fittingly legendary price tag of £25 million. It’s a regular at concourses around the world where even there it’s a sight to behold – and hear, when it inevitably gets revved up. So what about the new Bentley Blower Jnr?
The Little Car Company is a bit of a marvel. The thought of downsizing some of the most famous classic cars in history into little electric runabouts is inspired, especially once you’ve managed to get behind the wheel of one. They’re pure joy – although rarely practical. With the Blower Jnr, they’re hoping to change that.
The new car is an aesthetically perfect 85% scale take on the Blower proper, which means that it’s not actually that small. Indeed, even downsized, it’s still larger than the real life Bugattis of 1930, measuring around 4m long. From a distance you might just think it’s being driven by a particularly tall owner, but for one thing: the noise.
Rather than replicating the earth-shaking supercharged 4 ½ litre engine, the Blower Jnr is fully electric. That means you have the soft hum of a battery-powered motor, rather than a deafening roar – less visceral but a good deal better for your eardrums and your neighbours. Especially as the Blower Jnr has been created as the perfect pub car.
With its open top and elegant coach built silhouette, there’s nothing like seeing the Blower Jnr sedately cruising down a country road. And unlike previous offerings from the Little Car Company, it is indeed road legal. Except, that is, on motorways. Not that you’d particularly want to take it on those sorts of roads anyway – with its 45mph top speed and 65-mile range, you won’t be taking it across the country.
But then, how often do you drive fast or far enough for that to matter? On a daily basis, most of us drive a few miles down the road at most, whether that’s to work, to the pub or to the shops. And it’s worth noting that because the Blower Jnr’s electric motor takes up far less space than the original’s engine, that huge silhouette is mostly capacious storage space. The Supercharger on the other hand does remain… except that now it’s been converted into the actual charger.
You can expect those kinds of inspired touches across the board, too. The Little Car Company has a policy not to create anything fake, to adapt what they can and ditch what they can’t. It’s why the entire dashboard has been converted to actual useful information for the electric power and why there’s no exhaust. In fact, the only Little Car Company release with a fake exhaust is their James Bond Aston Martin – because it’s the 007 smoke machine.
It’s worth noting that all of these changes are fully endorsed by Bentley themselves. In fact, the Blower Jnr was created using their own blueprints and photos of the vintage Blower for reference, making it perfectly to scale in every dimension. That close collaboration also means that you can get the Blower Jnr finished in any colour and interior finishes that Bentley themselves use for their own custom cars. Want to match it to your GT? Go for it. Or you could go a step further and opt for something you won’t find on a classic Bentley – full carbon fibre for example. Who says that you need to keep things vintage?
The bottom line is that the junior Blower has been conceived and built not just as a downsized take on a legendary car. From the practicality of the electric engine to the finely-tuned steering and suspension (tuned in fact by the Little Car Company’s consulting F1 driver), it’s a car that celebrates the sheer joy of driving. Not bad for the first ever Bentley to be built outside of Crewe.
Nighty nine first edition cars will be built colour-matched to the original racing Bentley Blower, complete with unique details. Prices start from £90,000.
More details at The Little Car Company.
