Tim Birkin

Birkin was born into a wealthy Nottingham family in 1896. His father was Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin, 2nd Baronet, and his mother was the Hon. Margaret Diana Hopetoun Chetwynd. He married Audrey Clara Lilian Latham on 12 July 1921, and they divorced in 1928. They had two daughters, Pamela and Sara. At his death in 1933, without sons, he was succeeded by his paternal uncle, Sir Alexander Russell Birkin, 4th Baronet. His younger brother, Archie Birkin, was killed during practice for the 1927 Isle of Man TT motorcycle races.

Birkin joined the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the 108th (Norfolk and Suffolk Yeomanry) Field Brigade. He served in Palestine where he contracted malaria, a disease from which he suffered for the rest of his life.

In 1921, Birkin turned to motor racing, competing in a few races at Brooklands. Business and family pressures forced him to retire from the tracks until 1927. In 1928, Birkin acquired a 4½ litre car and decided to return to motor racing. He became a familiar sight on the race tracks, driving with the works team, the "Bentley Boys." In 1928, Birkin entered the Le Mans race, leading the first twenty laps until a jammed wheel forced him to drop back, finishing fifth with co-driver Jean Chassagne.

In 1929, Birkin was back as a winner at Le Mans, co-driving the "Speed Six" with Woolf Barnato. Birkin concluded that more power from a lighter model could be achieved by fitting a supercharger to the 4½ litre Bentley. When Bentley Motors refused to create the supercharged model, Birkin determined to develop it himself. With technical help from Clive Gallop and Amherst Villiers, and financing from Dorothy Paget, Birkin rebuilt the car at his engineering works in Welwyn Garden City. Adding a huge Roots-type supercharger in front of the radiator gave the car a unique appearance, and 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. W.O. Bentley himself never accepted the blower Bentley. With Woolf 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. Birkin put together a racing team of four remodelled "prototypes" and assembled a fifth car from spare parts. Birkin's blower Bentleys were too late for Le Mans in 1929, and only two 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.

In 1930, Birkin entered the Pau Grand Prix in a blower Bentley touring car, stripped down to racing trim. The race distance was twenty-five laps of the 15.8 km Circuit de Morlaas. Guy Bouriat took an early lead, followed by Williams, Zanelli, Czaikowski, and Étancelin, with Birkin in sixth place. Birkin advanced through the field, with the track's long straights suiting the supercharged Bentley. At one-third distance, Chiron led, followed by Étancelin, Williams, and Birkin. Birkin's fourth place became a third as Williams got engine troubles. After eleven laps, Chiron encountered problems with oil pressure, and Étancelin took over the lead. Birkin eventually moved into second place. While Étancelin nursed his Bugatti home to victory, Zanelli was catching Birkin fast. At the flag, Birkin made Grand Prix history by finishing second.

Bentley Motors withdrew from racing at the end of 1930. Dorothy Paget withdrew her support for Birkin's road team in October 1930, but continued to support his red single-seater track car, the original Blower No.1, nicknamed the Brooklands Battleship. Birkin kept his motor workshop going by partnering with Mike Couper and specializing in tuning high-performance cars. This partnership ended in 1932, and the works closed.

Birkin continued racing despite these setbacks. In 1931, he won Le Mans with Earl Howe in an Alfa Romeo. On 24 March 1932, he raised the Brooklands Outer Circuit lap record to 137.96 mph in the Brooklands Battleship. On 7 May 1933, he started the Tripoli Grand Prix in a new 3 L Maserati 8C owned by Bernard Rubin, finishing third. During his pit stop, Birkin burnt his arm badly against the hot exhaust pipe while picking up a cigarette lighter. The wound turned septic, or he suffered a malaria attack, or a combination of both. Birkin died at Countess Carnavon Nursing Home in London on 22 June 1933, aged thirty-six. He was buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas Church, Blakeney, Norfolk.

Birkin's life was portrayed in the 1995 TV drama Full Throttle with 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 produced a tuned version of the Bentley Continental GT called "The Birkin Edition." 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.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.