page_title: Bentley 4½ Litre
section_title: End of production
hierarchical_section_title: Bentley 4½ Litre / End of production
caption_attribution_description: Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged 1930 - Kop_Hill_2013 Chassis FS3623 Engine FS3624 Reg GN 1767 delivered July 1930 with 4-seater tourer body by Vanden Plasnow Ambler built Birkin replica on 9'9½" chassissource of information—Vintage Bentleys
context_page_description: The Bentley 4½ Litre was a British car based on a rolling chassis built by Bentley Motors. Walter Owen Bentley replaced the Bentley 3 Litre with a more powerful car by increasing its engine displacement to 4.4 litres. A racing variant was known as the Blower Bentley.
  Bentley buyers used their cars for personal transport and arranged for their new chassis to be fitted with various body styles, mostly saloons or tourers. However, the publicity brought by their competition programme was invaluable for marketing Bentley's cars.
  At the time, noted car manufacturers such as Bugatti and Lorraine-Dietrich focused on designing cars to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a popular automotive endurance course established only a few years earlier. A victory in this competition quickly elevated any car maker's reputation.
  A total of 720 4½ Litre cars were produced between 1927 and 1931, including 55 cars with a supercharged engine popularly known as the Blower Bentley. A 4½ Litre Bentley won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1928.
context_section_description: In November 1931, after selling 720 copies of the 4½ Litre - 655 naturally aspirated and 55 supercharged - in three different models (Tourer, Drophead Coupé and Sporting Four Seater), Bentley was forced to sell his company to Rolls-Royce for £125,175, a victim of the recession that hit Europe following the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
caption: Supercharged car GN1767
  mounts Kop Hill 22 September 2013
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