Phoenix Crankshafts helps craft first new Bentley Blowers for almost a century

Phoenix Crankshafts was commissioned by vintage Bentley specialist NDR, working on behalf of Bentley, to design and engineer the bespoke, premium crankshafts for the exclusive run of 12 customer cars, with each vehicle being valued at more than £1.5 million.

The Blower Continuation Series ‘Car Zero’ is the Bentley Mulliner crafted vehicle, based on the 1930’s Blower. It is the world’s first example of a pre-war continuation series.

All 12 models were pre-sold and crafted from the design drawings and tooling jigs used for the original four Blowers, built and raced by Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin in the late 1920s.

Phoenix Crankshafts partnered with NDR to support the project, commencing in 2020, to help breathe life back into the brand new 4.5 litre engine, originally designed by W.O. Bentley himself.

NDR provided expert support to Bentley to create the engine, complete with aluminium pistons, an overhead camshaft, four valves per cylinder and twin spark ignition – paired with a newly-machined Amherst Villiers roots-type supercharger.

The team at Phoenix Crankshafts were called upon for their expertise in engineering and manufacturing crankshafts that are harder wearing, stronger and more effectively counterweighted, with the flexibility to offer bespoke connecting rods with any centres, allowing for fine tuning of compression ratio.

Tom Coady, workshop manager at Phoenix Crankshafts in Slough, Berkshire, said: “Phoenix Crankshafts was delighted to be involved in this very special project, working closely with NDR for its customer Bentley.

“As a specialist for low volume batches of bespoke engineering designs, Phoenix Crankshafts has the expertise, knowledge, leading-edge equipment and state-of-the-art software, to successfully complete such prestigious undertakings.”

Phoenix Crankshafts, now under new ownership and receiving a significant £500,000 investment, has decades of experience manufacturing high-quality crankshafts and connecting rods for veteran, vintage, classic and modern vehicles.

Its team works in close collaboration with the customer to develop the optimum design, using leading computer aided design (CAD) to achieve high precision, low-volume batches in a short lead time.

Tom added: “We’re thrilled to now see the new Bentley Blowers in all their majestic glory. It was great to play our part and to be entrusted with such an iconic project, and we look forward to using our expertise on future, similar projects.”

For more information about Phoenix Crankshafts, visit www.phoenixcrankshafts.com.