Bad Säckingen, 26th - 30th of June
Every generation has its own racing heroes and being traditionally
motorsports addicted, Great Britain has one every decade.
Whereas today the youth might cheer for Lewis Hamilton, it was
Nigel Mansell in the late 1980s, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart in
the late 1960s and 1970s, or Sir Stirling Moss and Nike Hawthorn
in the 1950s, who are well known today for their racing abilities.
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That was the case even more so before the war, when the cars
were still painted in the national colour scheme rather than team
colours or sponsor liveries. National pride was very important in
racing. Apart from the ideology of the late 1930s when Dick
Seaman was driving the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows, victories of
local drivers on domestic cars were front page news in the
papers. In the mid-late 1920s one company in particular won
laurels on the international long distance races: Bentley. Without
the sponsorship of today´s racing the works-prepared entries were
often financed by wealthy gentlemen drivers racing for fame and
sportsmanship rather than fortune. Best known among them were
without doubt the Bentley Boys. Led by Woolf Barnato, who was
also chairman of Bentley Motors at that time, the gang including
Dr. Benjafield, Glen Kidston and Bernard Rubin, lived a celebrity
live in Central London and on the international race tracks.
Although Woolf Barnato might have been the most successful of
them with three successive Le Mans victories, unquestionable the
most talented was Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin.
Birkin was born in 1896 to a wealthy aristocratic family in
Nottingham. He took his first steps in racing in 1921 but because
of his young family (he married 1921 for the first time and had two
daughters) it was not until 1925 before he returned to the race
circuit with his first own 3 Litre Bentley, a VdP bodied Speed
Model. He raced under his own entry for the next year, and even
the death of his older brother Archie did not prevent him from
racing, very much to his family's dislike. After various successes
he became part of the Bentley Boys, racing a fully
works-prepared 4.5 Litre in the 1928 season in Brooklands, Le
Mans and the Nürburgring. Unlike “Babe” Barnato, Birkin had a
rather slender appearance and he was stammering, but behind
the wheel of the heavy Bentley he showed impressive driving
abilities. His philosophy in racing was certainly different to the
one of W.O.Bentley, who wanted to win races in the slowest
possible speed as to not overstress the car, whereas Birkin could
be always found in the lists for lap records.
This different philosophy also led to what is today considered
Birkin’s biggest achievement, the development of the famous
Blower Bentley.
W.O. had the opinion that nothing but the increase in the
displacement could bring the needed performance without
impairing the reliability. As a result, the works team entered a
race version of the 6.5 Litre straight six for the 1929 season after
the 3 and 4.5 Litre 4-cylinder the years before. That was despite
the fact that the Speed Six was never intended for racing, having
been designed to carry heavy coachwork when introduced in
1926.
Birkin on the other hand was of the opinion that the future of
racing was in the technique of supercharging the 4.5 Litre unit. As
this was not done by the factory race department, Birkin had to
raise outside money, finding a sponsor in Dorothy Paget. The
work was eventually done in his own shop with the design of
Amherst Villiers' Supercharger.
As the cars were not ready in time for the 1929 season, Birkin
shared the drive in the new Speed Six with Barnato, giving him his
first victory at La Sarthe.
As soon as the new cars were finished Birkin entered the Blower
in various races but unfortunately not with the best results, as the
car was not yet fully sorted. Several smaller problems left just few
arrivals but nevertheless a duo of Blowers was intended to race at
Le Mans in 1930, therefore Birkin had to convince Barnato to
finance a production run of 50 Blowers for the homologation.
The 1930 race saw the first appearance of the Mercedes-Benz
works team with a supercharged 710 SS raced by Rudolf
Caracciola, a winning combination on many circuits at the time.
As W.O. was still not convinced of the reliability of the Blower, he
set out a team order that was very close to Birkin’s temper: the
duo of Blower Bentley had to chase the Mercedes into racing and
force him to retire to get a trouble free victory to the Speed Six.
Birkin and Caracciola played the game and set several lap record
in the early stage of the race. One of the most famous motives in
automotive art of that era shows Birkin’s Blower partly off the
track to pass the white elephant. As intended by Bentley the
Mercedes retired after overstressing the engine by running the
supercharger too often; but so did Birkin’s Blower Bentleys, later
giving Barnato the second victory on the very same car as the
year before, the famous “Old Number One”.
Birkin kept on racing the Blower achieving his best result in at the
Grand Prix of Pau, when he defeated a bunch of favoured Bugattis
to come home second in front of an astonished crowd. Apparently
this led Ettore Bugatti to state “Mr. Bentley builds the fastest
trucks”.
Although the intended success of the Blower was never achieved
and Dorothy Paget lost interest in the project by the end of the
year, selling all but one of the cars, the Blower Bentley today is
one of the most iconic pre-war cars in existence. The production
cars are very well valued in the millions and the most famous of
the team cars, the No.1 single seater, just changed hands at last
year's Bonhams Goodwood FoS sale for more than 5 Million
GBP. Built as a track racer this car set the outer lap record in
Brooklands when Birkin was pictured airborne on the bumpy track
at full speed with flying scarf (his trademark). This might be one of
the most important cars representing the era of the Cricklewood
Bentley, only surpassed by the double Le Mans winning Speed
Six.
But Birkin’s racing career did not end with the end of the Bentley
racing programme, Birkin moved on and bought an Alfa Romeo
8C 2300, the car to have in the early 1930s to compete at race
tracks all over Europe. Birkin paired with another well-known
gentlemen driver, Lord Howe to win Le Mans a second time.
Birkin also drove a Maserati at the Tripoli GP in 1933, where
despite being a privateer he demonstrated driving performance on
par with the great works drivers Nuvolari, Varzi and Campari.
Unfortunately this was also his last race as he burnt his arms on
the exhaust pipe of the Maserati and died the 22nd of June 1933
either from an infection or Malaria (depending on the source).
Birkin is known to have lived his live at “Full Throttle”, which is
also the name of his autobiography.
The Rally (June 21-30, 2013)
80 years after Tim Birkin passed away, a small but selected
group decided that it would be a good idea to organize a rally to
honour the race driver and mastermind behind the Blower Bentley.
The Birkin Celebration Rally was divided in two parts starting with
a wreath-laying ceremony on his grave in Blakeney, Norfolk and a
meeting at the heart of British Motor Racing in Brooklands. After
the British part, the meeting was followed by a 4 day continental
tour with base in Bad Säckingen at the German-Swiss border.
This had been the location for the Blower Rally 2010 organized by
the Weibel family, long-term Blower-owners and masterminds
behind the Birkin Rally. Bad Säckingen is the ideal starting point
as it leaves wonderful possibilities for touring the Black Forest,
the Alps, the Jura and the Alsace, offering a large range of diverse
driving experiences and cultural impressions.
On Tuesday evening 23 cars with owners coming from USA, UK,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria and even Australia were lined up
in front of the hotel for the start at the next day. As the organizers
are rooted in the Bentley scene it came at no surprise that most
of the cars were from the Cricklewood era, including two of the
production Blowers, 3 and 4.5 Litre, Speed Six and even a very
rare 4 Litre model. When Bentley was struggling financially, due
to slow sales after the depression of the very expensive 8 Litre, a
new model was introduced with the 4 Litre engine in a shortened
8 Litre chassis to be sold at a lower price. Unfortunately this
came too late and just 50 of them were built (the same amount as
Blower Bentley). Today many think that the 4 Litre engine is not
powerful enough for the heavy chassis, so several of these were
rebuilt into 8 Litre VdP Tourer configurations, leaving this original
Saloon a rare survivor.
But not only Bentleys were invited, as the intention was to bring
together various ‘birkinesque’ cars, meaning cars Birkin raced
with or against. A Mercedes-Benz SSK represented the opponent
of the 1930 Le Mans race, a Bugatti T35 B - just as the cars
Birkin raced against at Pau, and an original Fox and Nicholl Team
Talbot 105, like one that had come in third at Birkin’s 1931 Le
Mans victory. Fellow Lord Howe was president of the Bugatti
owners club back in the time and raced a T43 in the Tourist
Trophy just as present.
On Wednesday the first tour led through the Black Forest with a
first stop in the morning at the Schluchsee. With different roads to
choose from along the way, those who took the “shortcut” through
the romantic “Alptal-Canyon” were rewarded with no less than 177
curves and 6 narrow rock-cut tunnels. Although described to be
for the “light sporty cars” this “adventure route” was also taken by
the 4 Litre Saloon showing that this would have been the better
choice for all cars. Eventually the cars arrived from different
directions at the first short coffee stop. For some reason, some
participants always seemed in a hurry and the last cars barely
arrived as the first ones already left for the drive through the forest,
heading towards the lunch stop on top of a small pass overlooking
the region. The journey in the afternoon led back to St. Blasien,
where the cars had the privilege to be parked in the middle of the
historic “Kurpark” next to the famous White Dome (the 3rd
biggest in Europe!). Entrants could enjoy a guided tour though the
dome while enjoying an outstanding and very touching organ
concert by Eiko Maria Yoshimura. The cars were admired by
numerous spectators in the meantime.
Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the week with the
tour through the Swiss Alps. During the Blower Rally of 2010, the
destination was the Klausenpass which is also location for the
famous hill climb that will be revived in 2013. This year the chosen
passes were the Grimsel and the Furka. Just as in 2010 the
weather forecast was not the best and the visibility was not as
hoped for. The first leg to the impressive art-nouveau Paxmontana
hotel in Flühli Ranft in central Switzerland was cloudy but dry.
However, driving up the hill at the Grimsel Pass, the cars entered
into the low clouds with limited visibility, cold temperatures
around zero degrees and snowfall on top of the pass. For the
organizers this was the worst scenario imaginable when they
discussed the tour a few days earlier. Yet, once there the
participants shunned the plan B which was to take a tour bus in
case of bad weather. Clearly, Franco and Kathy Weibel
underestimated the adventurous spirit of their friends. As a few of
them had previously done tours along the likes of Peking-Paris,
they could not be shocked by the weather conditions, some even
considered it great fun! One has to keep in mind that most of the
entrants have done countless rallies in their “classic car lives”, but
those with extreme conditions are those forever burned into
memory! Maybe a drive through “ordinary” rain would have spoiled
the fun but driving through snow at the end of June is certainly a
story to be told for ages - not just in Australia.
Despite being given the choice to return directly back to the hotel
after lunch, no one took the way back but all drove to the next
pass, the Furka. First the visibility was limited to a few meters but
soon the drivers and their passengers were rewarded with a most
enjoyable view of the Central Alpine mountains including Furka
Pass in front. On the way up the Furka Pass, a few cars from this
year's Peking-Paris just came the opposite way – what a
wonderful encounter! The weather was great to the top of the pass
with clouds again on the other side.
Finally all the cars arrived at for a lovely arranged British "tea
time" at Hotel Waldstätterhof at the Lake Lucerne, most drivers
smiling – but also a little tired from the challenging drive. Although
there was an option to take the motorway back to the hotel, many
preferred the longer way around the lakes. With that, the last cars
arrived at sunset, just in time for beer on their free evening. Some
of the cars had stayed in the parking lot that day and didn’t drive
the Alp day, presumable because of the weather forecast.
Certainly they missed the best part of the rally.
A surprise guest in the evening was the Bugatti T57 Ventoux
which arrived to replace the T35B that did not finish the day due
to technical problems.
Friday led participants to the Swiss-French border in the
beautifully wild Jura Mountains, an area mostly unknown to
outsiders. Unlike the Alps with harsh rock above the tree line, the
Jura offers some nice chain of green hills and the drive was in
perfect sunshine. The first stop was in the historic town centre of
Laufen for coffee break and aperitif, followed by the exquisite
lunch stop at the Chateau Pleujouse on the Swiss side of the
border. Some of the cars were parked in the inner yard of the
ancient building, accessible through a narrow gate, giving a good
photo opportunity.
On the way back to the hotel the convoy stopped for a scheduled
visit of the Louis Chevrolet Watch factory. Many hadn’t realized
that the famous U.S. car empire Chevrolet was founded by a poor
but mechanically highly talented emigrant from the poor Swiss
Jura Mountains. Experience shows many classic car lovers to
also be keen watch collectors, with a foible for mechanic watches
as this reflects the same spirit as the workmanship of a pre-war
car.
In the evening, the owners had the chance to present their cars to
the public in the nearby castle park during a get-together with
other vintage car enthusiasts dressed in period fashion thus
finalizing the day in style. Tim Houlding, the Bentley Historian
from the Birmingham region and Klaus Morhammer a car historian
from Munich, where presenting the cars in a most competent but
also humorous and entertaining way. All guests coming to the
castle park were very pleased and grateful for the opportunity to
not only see the cars, but also to learn so much about them, the
era when they were built, and the individuals.This event within the
event turned out to be a great success.
Saturday was the last day of the rally and led into the Alsace for
about 100 km to Eguisheim, the destination for the day.
Eguisheim is a unbelievable picturesque medieval wine-village
attracting tourists and wine connoisseurs from afar. After a warm
welcome the entrants had the possibility of a wine tasting in this
wine region and guided tour through the historic village. The cars
stayed in the city for most of the day, so the drivers didn't have to
worry much about alcohol.
After returning to the hotel, the final dinner with a subsequent
party concluded the rally. Between the courses of the very fine
meal, traditional regional music entertained the participants. First
came a very loud and wild intoxicating “Guggemusig”, a 22
member strong carnival band with all sorts of wind instruments
and drums. This was followed by a classic Swiss jodel trio from
the Jura region who gave examples of much more discrete
sounds.
The organisers, Franco, Kathy and Werny Weibel for the
Continental Tour, and Adam Singer, Penny Miller, Philip
Strickland and Tim Houlding for the UK leg, had prepared the
event for two and a half years with all enthusiasm for every
possible detail. The effort lead to a great success which will stay
in best memory to all who participated. After all the big events
during the summer 2013, it was refreshing to visit smaller tours
and meetings organized by enthusiasts for like-minded, that don't
suffer the financial pressure of have to earn a profit and without
obligations to sponsoring companies that often are associated
with these sorts of events. Certainly minor glitches can happen
with non-professional organizers (as they usually happen with
professionals, as well) but these are part of the charm. It was
easy to see that the entrants are less spoiled than one might
have thought and that need not always be a special star-awarded
dining establishment, as the social aspect is the most important
aspect for this size and style of rally. The organizers succeeded
to gather a homogeneous group who enjoyed the tour through the
surrounding landscape. Maybe some of them were not as deeply
interested in the life of Tim Birkin, but even without this
background it was a most enjoyable meeting.
We have put together a gallery with the continental part of the
rally featuring all the cars over the various days.
Report: Peter Singhof
Images: Peter & Wolfgang Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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