Tim Birkin Sir Henry Ralph Stanley " Tim " Birkin , 3rd Baronet ( 26 July 1896 – 22 June 1933 ) was a British racing driver , one of the " Bentley Boys " of the 1920s . Background and family . He was born into a wealthy Nottingham family in 1896 . He was the son of Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin , 2nd Bt . and Hon . Margaret Diana Hopetoun Chetwynd . In childhood , Henry Birkin gained the nickname " Tim " , after the children ' s comic book character Tiger Tim , created by Julius Stafford Baker , who was extremely popular at the time . The nickname stuck right up to Birkin ' s death . He married Audrey Clara Lilian Latham , daughter of Sir Thomas Paul Latham , 1st Bt . and Florence Clara Walley , on 12 July 1921 . They were divorced in 1928 . He and Audrey had two daughters , Pamela and Sara , both of whom married and had issue . The elder daughter Pamela ( d . 1983 ) married two Buxton cousins in succession , and her second husband was the Life Peer Baron Buxton of Alsa , KCVO , MC . She had seven children including wildlife film - maker Cindy Buxton . The younger daughter Sara ( d . 1976 ) married twice , and had two sons by her first husband . . At his death , without sons of his own , in 1933 , he was succeeded by his next surviving male relative , his paternal uncle Sir Alexander Russell Birkin , 3rd Baronet ( died 1942 ) . His younger brother , Archie Birkin , was killed during practice for the 1927 Isle of Man TT motorcycle races . Military career . He joined the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and gained the rank of Lieutenant in the service of the 108th ( Norfolk and Suffolk Yeomanry ) Field Brigade , serving in Palestine where he contracted malaria , a disease from which he would suffer for the rest of his life . Racing career . In 1921 he turned to motor racing , competing a few races at Brooklands . Business and family pressure then forced him to retire from the tracks until 1927 when he entered a three litre Bentley for a six hour race . For 1928 he acquired a 4½ litre car and after some good results decided to return to motor racing , very much against his family ' s wishes . Soon the little Bentley driver , racing with a blue and white spotted silk scarf around his neck , would be a familiar sight on the race tracks driving with the works team ( the " Bentley Boys " ) . In 1928 Birkin entered the Le Mans race again , leading the first twenty laps until a jammed wheel forced him to drop back , finishing fifth . The next year he was back as winner , racing the " Speed Six " as co - driver to Woolf Barnato . If Bentley wanted a more powerful car he developed a bigger model and the Speed Six was a huge car . Ettore Bugatti once referred to the Bentley as " " the world ' s fastest lorry " " ( " Le camion plus vite du monde " ) . Back in 1928 however , 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 . When Bentley Motors refused to create the supercharged model Birkin sought he determined to develop it himself . With technical help from Clive Gallop and supercharger specialist Amherst Villiers , and with Dorothy Paget financing the project after his own money had run out , Birkin rebuilt the car at the engineering works he had set up for the purpose at Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire . Adding a huge Roots - type supercharger ( " blower " ) in front of the radiator driven straight from the crankshaft gave the car a unique appearance . The 242 bhp " blower Bentley " was born . The first car , a stripped down Brooklands racer known as Bentley Blower 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 . Bentley himself had never accepted the blower Bentley . Nevertheless , with Wolf Barnato ' s support , Birkin persuaded " W . O . " to produce the fifty supercharged cars necessary for the model to be accepted for the Le Mans twenty four hour race . In addition to these production cars built by Bentley Motors , Birkin put together a racing team of four remodelled " prototypes " ( three road cars for Le Mans and Blower No . 1 ) and assembled a fifth car from spare parts . Birkin ' s blower Bentleys were too late for Le Mans in 1929 and only two of the cars reached the start line in 1930 . After an epic duel between Dudley Benjafield and Birkin ' s privately entered blower Bentleys and Rudolf Caracciola ' s Mercedes SSK all three retired , leaving the victory to the Bentley works team Speed Six of Barnato and Glen Kidston . Birkin ' s courage and fearless driving , in particular his selflessly harrying Caracciola into submission , are regarded as embodying the true spirit of the Vintage Racing era . Back in 1925 the energetic motor sports enthusiast Eugène Azemar , who was involved with the Tourist Board in Saint - Gaudens in southern France , succeeded in persuading the Automobile Club du Midi to arrange a Grand Prix race in the region . A great success , the Saint - Gaudens track later got the honor of hosting the 1928 French Grand Prix . If they can , so can we , thought the city council in the nearby town of Pau and decided to try to take the French Grand Prix to their own town . Pau had some Grand Prix traditions , as the town held the honour of arranging the first race ever to be called a Grand Prix back in 1901 . For the 1930 Grand Prix a triangular , Le Mans - type track outside the city was selected . Known as the Circuit de Morlaas it should not be confused with the well - known street track in the Parque Beaumont . The French had hoped to run the race to the International Formula , but when the response was poor the event was postponed and changed to a Formula Libre event instead . The new date meant that the Italian teams were unable to attend , leaving it to be mostly an internal French affair with sixteen Bugatti s , two Peugeot s and a Delage among the twenty five starters . Among the top Bugatti drivers were Louis Chiron , Marcel Lehoux , Count Stanislas Czaikowski , Jean - Pierre Wimille , Philippe Étancelin and William Grover - Williams . A curiosity in the largely single - seat entry list was Tim Birkin ' s blower Bentley touring car , stripped down to racing trim , with headlights and mudguards removed . The race distance was twenty five laps of the 15 . 8 km track , making a total of 396 km . Guy Bouriat took an early lead , followed by Williams , Zanelli , Czaikowski and Étancelin , with Birkin as first non - Bugatti driver , in sixth place . Williams in a works Bugatti then became the next leader . Czaikowski fell back through the field and Bouriat in the other works Bugatti made a pitstop giving over the car to Chiron . Then Williams also had to make a stop for a new wheel . That all made way for Étancelin to advance and he was followed by Birkin , the track with its long straights suiting the supercharged Bentley perfectly . At one - third distance Chiron led , followed by Étancelin , Williams and Birkin . Birkin ' s fourth place became a third as Williams got engine troubles but then Zanelli , who had made an early stop , came rushing through the field pushing Birkin back to fourth . At lap ten " Sabipa " crashed and was thrown out of his Bugatti , Birkin only avoiding the injured driver by the slightest of margins . After eleven laps Chiron encountered problems with oil pressure and Étancelin took over the lead . Soon Chiron was also passed by Zanelli and Birkin . The Bentley driver used the horn to warn the Bugatti to move over , surely a unique occurrence in Grand Prix racing ! With seven laps to go Zanelli made another pitstop and Birkin was up into second place . While Étancelin , with a 2 . 5 minute lead , nursed his Bugatti home to take victory , Zanelli had not given up and was catching Birkin fast . At the flag the margin was down to fourteen seconds but it was enough for the British Bentley driver to make Grand Prix history . Death . Birkin ' s world fell to pieces at the end of 1930 . Bentley Motors withdrew from racing and closed down the following year . ( Although purchased by Rolls Royce the marque did not reappear for several years . ) And Dorothy Paget withdrew her support for Birkin ' s road team in October 1930 . She continued however to support Birkin ' s red single seater track car , the original Blower No . 1 . The car had been re - bodied with a single shell by Reid Railton after its lightweight fabric two seater body had caught fire in the 1929 500 mile race due to a cracked exhaust ( nicknamed the Brooklands Battleship ) . Birkin kept his motor workshop going by entering into a partnership with Mike Couper and developing a business specialising in tuning high performance cars . In addition , an " electric model Brooklands " — an elaborate miniature racetrack game with motorized cars running on single rails — was manufactured at the works . Birkin ' s partnership with Couper came to an end in 1932 however and the works closed . Birkin continued racing despite these setbacks . In 1931 he won Le Mans with Earl Howe in an Alfa Romeo , even receiving a telegram from Mussolini congratulating him on his " win for Italy " . On 24 March 1932 he raised the Brooklands Outer Circuit lap record to 137 . 96 mph in the Brooklands Battleship , a record which stood for another two years before being beaten by John Cobb driving the 24 litre Napier Railton . On 7 May 1933 he started the Tripoli Grand Prix in a new 3 L Maserati 8C owned by fellow driver Bernard Rubin , finishing third . During his pit stop Birkin burnt his arm badly against the hot exhaust pipe while picking up a cigarette lighter . There are different opinions of what then happened . The traditional view is that the wound turned septic whilst others say Birkin suffered from a malaria attack . It was probably a combination of both that proved fatal , as Birkin died at Countess Carnavon Nursing Home in London 22 June 1933 , aged thirty - five . Memorial . Birkin ' s life was portrayed in the 1995 TV drama " Full Throttle " with comedian Rowan Atkinson in the role of Birkin . In 2000 , the last 54 of the Bentley Arnage Green label powered cars were created as a limited edition , called " The Birkin Arnage . " German aftermarket tuner MTM have latterly produced a tuned version of the Bentley Continental GT called " The Birkin Edition , " producing 641 hp . Birkin House , a Victorian country guest house in Stinsford , Dorchester , is named after Birkin . The artist Terence Cuneo unveiled his painting The ' Spirit of Brooklands , ' which shows Tim Birkin racing John Cobb as the result of a wager , three laps of Brooklands to win . Cobb drove a ten and a half litre Delage , once holder of the land speed record , and Birkin his four and a half supercharged Bentley , the ' Brooklands Battleship . ' The higher top speed of the Bentley gave Birkin the edge over the distance , and the painting depicts Birkin on the outside line of the high banking edging past Cobb to win . The actual race had taken place in the August Bank Holiday of 1932 , and Birkin had won by 25 yards after a third lap at 137 mph .