The British Bulldog... [PIC]

This ugly brute symbolized the tenacity of the British Empire ruling over the seas as well as their extensive colonies back in the day. During WWll it was common to see Winston Churchill's cigar smoking head as a transplant.

 This 1929 Bentley 4.5 liter "Blower" has a similar ugly mug and is hardly a streamlined sculptural beauty. In other words, it looks very... British. There was kind of a war between W O Bentley and chief engineer/driver "Tim" Birkin over how to increase horsepower with Bentley reliant on displacement and Birkin seeing the success of supercharging. Bentley went ahead to replace the 4.5 liter 4 with a 6.5 liter 6 known as the "Speed Six". Bentley had lost control of the company by then so Birkin went over his head to the chairman and got a green light to build 54 supercharged 4.5 liter Bentleys. For the 1930 Le Mans event, both the "Blower" and the Speed Six were entered and went to take on Rudolf Caracciola in his 7 liter Mercedes. The Blower, driven by Birkin, actually overtook the Mercedes, but both had to drop out leaving the Speed Six the winner... vindicating W O Bentley in a way. The Bentley Blower was an impressive beast and was a fan favorite. Ian Fleming was at that race and later gave his character James Bond ownership. The Bentley Blower never did win a single race being plagued by various problems, but ironically became an icon in British racing history.

As old as this model is, this Franklin Mint model is virtually on par with the much later Minichamps model in 1/18 scale.