First Bacalar and Blower customer cars hand-finished by Bentley Mulliner

A look at the past and to the future as the first customer deliveries of Bentley’s coach built Bacalar and Blower Continuation models are produced.

Aug 20, 2021

Both cars are part of Bentley’s ‘Handcrafted’ program, catering to the wants of some of the world’s most discerning collectors and enthusiasts

The world’s best carmakers have become some of the world’s most desirable luxury brands. This affords brands the ability to offer extremely limited and extremely valuable bespoke builds for their highest value clients around the world. Bentley is the latest to present, not one, but two hand-built specials. Both are utterly desirable in the extreme, but the two cars couldn’t more different.

Bentley Mulliner has completed the first customer cars in both of its new series of pinnacle, handcrafted, bespoke projects. Each car is the first of their respective 12 vehicle series, with Bacalar Car One being the first customer delivery of Mulliner’s new coachbuilt barchetta.

Meanwhile, Blower Car One is a millimetre-accurate mechanical recreation of Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin’s 1929 supercharged 4½-Litre, and the first customer car of the world’s first pre-war continuation series.

Blower Car One

 

The first Blower Continuation Series car is a shining example of classic design, executed to perfection. The body is trimmed in period-correct Rexine and finished in bespoke Birkin Green paint, a recreation of the colour of the original Blower on which it’s based – Team Car No.2, registration UU 5872.

Built, owned and raced by Sir Tim Birkin, the car is still owned by Bentley Motors and is run weekly.

Car One is therefore the most fitting start to the Continuation Series that could be imagined. The Birkin Green body is complemented by identically coloured wire wheels, with colour-matched leather trimming the interior. The foldable roof is in black.

Mechanically, the car is identical to Birkin’s original, save for two safety-critical features – modern electric fuel pumps, and a foam baffle to the fuel tank. A dynator, a reworked alternative to the original dynamo has also been added, offering a more powerful and reliable charging system whilst retaining the look of the original dynamo.

The engine is a brand new example of W.O. Bentley’s own 4½-litre design, featuring aluminium pistons, an overhead camshaft, four valves per cylinder and twin spark plugs. Attached to the front is the iconic supercharger that gives the Blower its name, and is an exact recreation of that created in the 1920s by renowned engineer, Amherst Villiers.

Power has been measured as part of engine sign-off, with the near-100-year old design reliably making 240 bhp.

Bacalar Car One

 

Alongside the Blower, Bacalar Car One has also been finished. Designing a Bacalar is an exercise in imagination, with the material, colour and finish of practically every interior and exterior surface being bespoke.

 

The carbon fibre body is finished in a bespoke colour for the lead customer – a champagne-tinted satin silver called Atom Silver. The car sits on 22” Bacalar Tri-Finish wheels, with polished faces, dark grey satin spokes and gloss Moss Green accent highlights.

 

The same Moss Green accent is applied to the front grille centre bar, the insides of the headlamps, the upper body chrome surround and around the gloss black “power humps” to the rear. Gloss black also provides contrast to the A-pillars, grille meshes and surrounds, bonnet vents, side vents, lower body, rear bumper insert and brake calipers. The rear of the car is finished with gloss black outer exhaust tips with Moss Green inners.

 

The interior of Bacalar Car One follows the same black and green trend. Beluga leather is accented with Moss Green hide to the wings of the console, the outer seat backs and throughout the cabin as contrast stitching through the unique Bacalar quilting pattern. The seat centres use fine Nappa leather, while the carpets are beluga diamond-carved overmats with Moss Green binding and stitching.

Open Pore Riverwood over Gloss Black veneer with unique satin bronze detailing flows across the cockpit into the doors and behind the front seats, creating a circle of 5,000-year-old veneer. The details of the cabin are truly special, with:

 

  • Bronze finishes to the steering wheel and headrest bezels, upper ventilation bullseye vents and accent rings
  • A satin nickel finish to the clock and Bentley Rotating Display dial faces
  • Black anodised interior brightware
  • Bright chrome Bentley wings
  • Gloss black finishing to the speaker grilles

 

Bespoke Bacalar luggage, that fits behind the front seats, crafted in Beluga hide with contrast Bentley embroidered emblems and Bacalar quilting pattern in Moss Green with Beluga fine Nappa leather piping

Finally, the key for Bacalar Car One will be presented to the customer in a bespoke key box, trimmed in Beluga hide with Moss Green stitching to match the car. The key itself also features gloss Moss Green to the sides, with a special Bacalar knurled finish.

 

Both Blower Car One and Bacalar Car One now shortly begin their journeys to their respective owners, while the Mulliner build team continue work on the next three cars in both series – each one as special and unique to their owners as these first examples.