---
title: Amherst Villiers · HICONIUM
description: Amherst Villiers in the HICONIUM register — one file carrying their credit.
canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/people/amherst-villiers
image: https://hiconium.dev/og/people/amherst-villiers.png
---

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> Path: [Home](https://hiconium.dev/) › [People](https://hiconium.dev/people) › Amherst Villiers
> On this page: [Front-mounted Roots blower](#front-mounted-roots-blower) · [Engine rebuilt for boost](#engine-rebuilt-for-boost) · [One file carries this name](#one-file-carries-this-name)

People

# Amherst Villiers

Independent supercharging engineer of the Bentley 4½ Litre Blower

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Born | London, 1900 |
| Died | 1991 |
| Nationality | British |

The record

Independent engineer who designed the crank-driven Roots supercharger for Tim Birkin's Bentley 4½ Litre "Blower".

Charles Amherst Villiers was born in London on 9 December 1900, the son of Ernest Amherst Villiers, later Liberal MP for Brighton. He was educated at Oundle, where he met Raymond Mays. Motor Sport recorded that he tuned Mays's Brescia Bugattis for sprint work into 1924. In July 1925 the magazine described a Roots-type supercharger of his design on Mays's single-seater A.C., driven from a new crankshaft.

In 1928 he and Mays rebuilt 1922 TT Vauxhalls as the Vauxhall-Villiers sprint cars. Motor Sport's 1937 technical note placed a large, heavily ribbed Villiers Roots supercharger vertically behind the radiator, bevel-driven from the nose of the crankshaft. When Villiers was responsible for the car, the claimed output was 260 bhp at 6,000 rpm.

Birkin then commissioned him to supercharge the Bentley 4½ Litre. Villiers designed the Mk IV Roots unit as an independent under contract to Bentley Motors: crankshaft-driven and mounted ahead of the radiator. Bentley records 175 bhp in road form and 240 bhp in team tune, with a heavier crankcase, stronger rods and special pistons. Fifty homologation cars and a small Birkin team were built from 1929; the 4½ Litre "Blower" set pace but won no period endurance race.

### Front-mounted Roots blower

A crank-driven Roots supercharger at the front of the engine was his recurring layout, first recorded on Mays's A.C. in 1925 and then on the Bentley, where the Mk IV sits ahead of the radiator.

### Engine rebuilt for boost

On the Blower the unit was not a bolt-on only: Bentley lists a heavier crankcase and block, stronger connecting rods, special pistons and gudgeon pins, and revised engine mountings.

The stations

1. 1925–1928 Independent practice Supercharging engineer for Raymond Mays
2. 1929–1931 Independent practice Supercharger designer under contract to Bentley Motors

The house

[![Bentley](https://hiconium.dev/images/marques/full/bentley.svg)](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/bentley)

In the register

## One file carries this name

- [Bentley 4½ Litre "Blower" Supercharger engineer 1929–1931 €6M 1929–1931 €6M Rating 97.0](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/bentley/41-2-litre-blower)

The files above are the register's own record of this name. [The people index](https://hiconium.dev/people) holds everyone the register credits.

Sources

- [motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-1992/65/obituary/)
- [thepeerage.com](https://www.thepeerage.com/p22500.htm)
- [gracesguide.co.uk](https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Raymond_Mays)
- [motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1925/22/new-super-charged-ac-racing-car/)
- [motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/january-1937/8/the-vauxhall-villiers-2/)
- [bentleymedia.com](https://www.bentleymedia.com/en/heritage-collection/1930-demonstrator-blower-gh6951)
- [bentleymedia.com](https://www.bentleymedia.com/en/heritage-collection/1929-team-blower-uu5872)
- [bentleymotors.com](https://www.bentleymotors.com/uk/en/about-bentley/history-and-heritage/bentley-story.html)
- [motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-2021/120/the-legend-of-the-blower-bentley-magic-or-myth/)
- [motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-2005/76/life-less-ordinary/)
- [kda132.com](https://kda132.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NZRRB12-6.pdf)