W.O. Bentley's gift for creating cars that combined the speed of a thoroughbred racing machine with an enviable reputation for strength and comfort, allowing them to effortlessly cover hundreds of miles, is set to be underlined once again at the 2012 Mille Miglia when two 4½ litre Bentley Blowers take on the classic 1,000 mile endurance test.

Despite having a combined age of over 160 years, the Bentley Blowers are showing no signs of slowing down. The 4½ litre Supercharged 'Birkin Blower' - raced extensively by the legendary Le Mans winner and Bentley Boy Tim Birkin - has already successfully completed the Mille Miglia in 2005 and 2011."         Continued...

Before you say, "Another Bentley racing history?", note that this one combines the W.O. Bentley racing era with the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen built Bentley race cars and their successes. Vintage Bentley racing does overwhelmingly dominate the book and if you wish to pursue the Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen years, there are some fine books that cover those subjects more extensively that this Venebles' book. One of the strong points of this book is that it has very good coverage of the events and details with good photographic reference. More important for many Vintage Bentley enthusiasts, especially those that are new to Vintage Bentleys -- this book is relatively inexpensive compared to making the effort and spending a vast amount of money collecting all the out-of-print books covering Vintage Bentley racing.

Article from 1944
A Tale of Two Bentleys
Published in "Motor Sport", October 1944

The first intimation of the existence of CK 8172 was when my friend and colleague, John Hay, returned from a deviously-routed official journey with the news that a quaint Bentley, believed to be a 3-litre, was residing in a breaker's yard at Bradford. A journey was obviously imperative, so we went to hold an inquest on the remains, and found the engine and gearbox complete and apparently undamaged...