Clive Gallop Colonel Reginald Clive Gallop ( Born Cairo , Egypt , 4 February 1892 — died Leatherhead Surrey 7 September 1960 ) was a World War I pilot , racing driver and race engineer . He was the developer of the 4 - valve engine for Bentley Motors . Royal Flying Corps . Known as Clive Gallop , he joined the Royal Flying Corps , flying aeroplanes over the Western Front . He commanded a number of flights , including No . 56 Squadron . Engineer W . O . Bentley had noticed the pre - war innovative use of aluminium in the French Doriot , Flandrin & Parant car factory . Commissioned at the outbreak of war as an engineer by the Royal Naval Air Service , he was sent to the former - Gwyne car factory in Chiswick , which was making French Clerget engines under licence . Bentley ' s job was to liaise between the squadrons in the field in France and the factory ' s engineering staff , which is how he came to meet Gallop . Clerget as the license holder were very unwilling to act on Bentley ' s more important suggestions , so the Royal Navy sent Bentley to Humbers in Coventry , where he was given a team to design his own aero - engine . The resulting engine , fundamentally different from the Clerget though — for ease of production — alike in the design of the cam mechanism , was running in prototype by early summer 1916 . This was the BR1 , " Bentley Rotary 1 " , with the bigger BR2 followed in early 1918 . Gallop helped Bentley bring both into service with the Royal Flying Corps . At the end of hostilities and leaving his commission with the Royal Flying Squadron , Gallop joined the Royal Aero Club . Bentley Motors . In 1919 , W . O . Bentley formed a group in Cricklewood to turn his aero engines business into a car production . In a group that included Frank Burgess ( formerly of Humber ) and Harry Varley ( formerly of Vauxhall Motors ) , they set about designing a high quality sporting tourer for production under the name Bentley Motors . Gallop joined the team as an engine designer , developing the straight - 4 engine . Although large for its day compared to similar engines from Bugatti , it was its technical innovations that were most noticed . One of the first production engines with 4 valves per cylinder , these were driven by an overhead camshaft . It was also among the first with two spark plugs per cylinder , pent - roof combustion chamber s , and twin carburetor s . It was extremely undersquare , optimized for low - end torque , with a bore of and a stroke of . To increase durability , the iron engine block and cylinder head were cast as a single unit . Power output was roughly , allowing the final Bentley 3 Litre car via a four - speed gearbox to reach . The Speed Model could reach , while the Super Sports passed . Louis Zborowski . From 1921 , Gallop joined " Count " Louis Zborowski at his Higham Park estate . As well as acting as his co - driver in numerous races , and as driver of the team ' s second Aston Martin in others ( i . e . : 1922 French Grand Prix ) , he also helped Zborowski designed and built four of his own racing cars in the estates stables . The first car was powered by a 23 , 093 cc six - cylinder Maybach aero engine and called " Chitty Bang Bang " . A second " Chitty Bang Bang " was powered by 18 , 882 Benz aero engine . A third car was based on a Mercedes 28 / 95 , but fitted with a 14 , 778 cc 6 - cylinder Mercedes aero engine and was referred to as The White Mercedes . These cars achieved some success at Brooklands . Another car , also built at Higham Park with a huge 27 - litre aero engine , was called the " Higham Special " and later " Babs " and was used in J . G . Parry - Thomas ' s fatal attempt for the land speed record at Pendine Sands in 1927 . In January 1922 Zborowski , his wife Vi , Gallop and Pixi Marix together with a couple of mechanics took Chitty Bang Bang and the White Mercedes across the Mediterranean for a drive into the Sahara Desert , in the tracks of Citroen ' s kegresse expedition . In 1923 , Zborowski joined with American engineer Harry Arminius Miller , driving the single - seat " American Miller 122 " at that year ' s Italian Grand Prix . He died aged 29 the following year whilst racing for Mercedes - Benz in the same race , after hitting a tree . Bentley Boys . At the end of his partnership with Zborowski in 1924 , Gallop as a friend of Woolf Barnato rejoined Bentley Motors in 1925 after his friend bought into the business . This led to him both supporting the racing efforts of the " Bentley Boys " , as well as developing the engine for the Bentley 4½ Litre . Blower Bentley . If Bentley wanted a more powerful car , he developed a bigger capacity model . The Bentley Speed Six was a huge car , which Ettore Bugatti once referred to as " " the world ' s fastest lorry " " ( " Le camion plus vite du monde " ) . In 1928 , Bentley Boy Sir Henry " Tim " Birkin had come to the conclusion that the future lay in getting more power from a lighter model by fitting a supercharger to the 4½ litre Bentley , refusing to adhere strictly to Bentley ' s assertion that increasing displacement is always preferable to forced induction . Bentley believed that : When Bentley Motors refused to create the supercharged model , Birkin determined to develop it himself . Mercedes - Benz had been using compressors for a few years . Development . With financial backing from Dorothy Paget , a wealthy horse racing enthusiast financing the project after his own money had run out , Birkin set - up his own engineering works for the purpose of developing the car at Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire . With an engine and car to be developed by Gallop , Birkin engaged supercharger specialist Amherst Villiers . Gallop had designed the 4½ Litre Bentley engine with a single overhead camshaft actuating four valves per cylinder , inclined at 30 degrees , a technically advanced design at a time where most cars still used only two valves per cylinder . Bentley refused to allow the engine to be modified to incorporate the compressor . The huge Roots - type supercharger ( " blower " ) was hence added in front of the radiator , driven straight from the crankshaft . This gave the Blower Bentley a unique and easily recognisable profile , and exacerbated its understeer . A guard protected the two carburetters located at the compressor intake . Similar protection was used ( both in the 4½ Litre and the Blower ) for the fuel tank at the rear , because a flying stone punctured the 3 Litre of Frank Clement and John Duff during the first 24 Hours of Le Mans , possibly depriving them of victory . The crankshaft , pistons and lubrication system were special to the Blower engine . These additions and modifications took the power of the base car from : The " Bentley Blower " was born , more powerful than the 6½ Litre despite lacking the two additional cylinders . The downside was that Blower Bentleys consume 4 liters of fuel per minute at full speed . Production . The original Bentley Blower No . 1 had a taut canvas top stretched over a lightweight Weymann aluminium frame , housing a two - seat body . This presented a very light but still resistant to wind structure . It was officially presented in 1929 at the British International Motor Show at Olympia , London . No . 1 first appeared at the Essex six hour race at Brooklands on 29 June 1929 . However , the car initially proved to be very unreliable . " W . O . " had never accepted the blower Bentley , but with effective company owner and financial backer Barnato ' s support , Birkin persuaded " W . O . " to produce the fifty supercharged cars necessary for the model to be accepted for Le Mans . In addition to these production cars built by Bentley Motors , Birkin got Gallop to engineer a racing series of four remodelled " prototypes " plus a spare : Death . Gallop was thrown from a skidding car in Leatherhead Surrey on 7 September 1960 . He was taken to hospital but was found dead on arrival .