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.

[3] There were two foreign competitors in the first race, Frank Clement and Canadian John Duff, the latter winning the 1924 competition in his personal car, a Bentley 3 Litre.

"Made with precision and the finest material,"[4] and with recent success, the luxurious Bentley cars attracted attention.

[5] He refused to adhere strictly to Bentley's assertion that increasing displacement is always preferable to forced induction.

[citation needed] The Bentley Blower No.1 was officially presented in 1929 at the British International Motor Show at Olympia, London.

[11] Birkin arranged for the construction of the supercharged cars having received approval from Bentley chairman and majority shareholder Woolf Barnato[12][11][13] and financing from wealthy horse racing enthusiast Dorothy Paget.

[16] The robustness of the 4½ Litre's lattice chassis,[16] made of steel and reinforced with ties,[17] was needed to support the heavy cast iron inline-four engine.

[18] The Bentley's tanks – radiator, oil and petrol – had quick release filler caps that opened with one stroke of a lever.

The steering wheel measured about 45 cm (18 in) in diameter and was wrapped with solid braided rope for improved grip.

This gave the Blower Bentley an easily recognisable appearance and also increased the car's understeer due to the additional weight at the front.

[citation needed] In 2019–2020, Bentley scanned all 630 components that made up the Blower so that they could digitally re-create it and create 12 new models.

[28] In 1930, Birkin finished second in the French Grand Prix at the Circuit de Pau behind a Bugatti Type 35.

[3][13][28] Ettore Bugatti, annoyed by the performance of Bentley, called the 4½ Litre the "fastest lorry in the world."

[30] 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[1]), 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.

[10][35] James Bond drives a 1930 Blower Bentley in Ian Fleming's first three novels featuring the character, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and Moonraker.

[36] In the books, Bond drives one of the last Blower Bentleys built, a battleship grey Convertible Coupé, with French Marchal headlamps.