The Bentley 4½ Litre is a British sports car built by Bentley Motors. Its supercharged variant is also known as the Blower Bentley. Famous for his statement “there’s no replacement for displacement”, Walter Owen Bentley upped the displacement of the Bentley 3 Litre in 1926 to produce the 4½ Litre. Upon taking control of the company, the “Bentley Boys” went in search of even more power and developed the supercharged model in 1929 at Henry Birkin’s racing workshops in Welwyn Garden City. The total production of the 4½-Liter was 720 between 1927 and 1931.
The Bentley 4½ Litre is notable for winning the 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans in normally aspirated form and for attaining the speed record in 1932 on the Brooklands circuit with a speed of 222.03 km/h in supercharged form.
The 4½ Litre was an evolution of the 3 Litre, sharing that car’s basic chassis, including its semi-elliptical suspension at all four wheels and four-wheel brakes. The straight-4 engine was bored out to 3.9 in to produce 43