THE first new Bentley Blower in 90 years has been completed with the delivery of Car Zero - the prototype for the Blower Continuation Series.

Some 40,000 hours of work has been put into the creation of the prototype by Bentley's Mulliner specialist team at the company's Crewe headquarters and the car has nearly 2,000 individually designed hand-crafted parts.

An exclusive run of 12 customer cars - all pre-sold - will be crafted from design drawings and tooling jigs used for the original four Blowers built and raced by Sir Henry ‘Tim' Birkin in the late 1920s.

Bentley's own Team Car - Chassis HB 3403, engine SM 3902, registration UU 5872, Team Car 2 - has provided the master model for the Continuation Series, with every single component laser-scanned as part of a wheels-up restoration.

From that data, 1,846 individual parts were designed and hand-crafted to create the new Blower.

Two hundred and thirty of those parts are assemblies - one of which being the engine - taking the total part count to several thousand when fixings and interior trim parts are included.

Each has been created by a project team of Bentley Mulliner engineers, craftspeople and technicians working together with a number of British specialists and suppliers.

These includes a chassis by Israel Newton and Sons Ltd of Derby, a grille and and fuel tank by the Vintage Car Radiator Company based at Bicester Heritage in Oxfordshire, springs and shackles from Jones Springs Ltd, a specialist in the West Midlands and headlamps produced by Vintage Headlamp Restoration International Ltd in Sheffield.

Meanwhile, in the bespoke Mulliner trim shop in Crewe, a new ash frame was created by Lomax Coachbuilders based in Ludlow, Shropshire.

Blower Car Zero is a dedicated test and development prototype, built in advance of the 12 customer cars, and will be subjected to months of durability and performance testing.

Finished in gloss black, with an interior in Oxblood red leather from Bridge of Weir, Car Zero made its debut to officially mark the creation of the new Bentley Motors campus in Crewe.

Made possible by the closing of Pyms Lane - Bentley's address since 1946 - the campus extends Bentley's headquarters.

Chairman and chief executive of Bentley Motors, Adrian Hallmark, drove Car Zero down Pyms Lane to mark the occasion.

He said: "To drive the first new Blower in 90 years was a privilege, and the quality of the car would make Sir Tim Birkin himself proud. The craftsmanship is exquisite, and I'm pleased to report that the car drives just as beautifully as our original Team Car.

"It was also significant that I could drive the new Blower down Pyms Lane, now part of our main site as we expand to create the new Bentley campus. Investing in our headquarters is vital both for Bentley's future and for Crewe, and our new developments and buildings are a physical manifestation of the exciting future before us as we start our journey to become the world leader in sustainable luxury mobility."