Amherst Villiers (1900–1991) was an English automotive, aeronautical and astronautic engineer and portrait painter. He designed a land speed record-breaking car for

Malcolm Campbell Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1 ...

, and developed the supercharged "Blower Bentley", driven by

Henry Birkin Sir Henry Ralph Stanley "Tim" Birkin, 3rd Baronet (26 July 1896 – 22 June 1933) was a British racing driver, one of the " Bentley Boys" of the 1920s. Background and family Birkin was born into a wealthy Nottingham family in 1896, the son of ...

and (in fiction) by

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

Early life

Charles Amherst Villiers was born in London on 9 December 1900, the son of Ernest Amherst Villiers and the Hon. Elaine Augusta Guest. He was educated at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...

and at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

Career

Villiers began his automotive career modifying Brescia Bugattis and supercharging a Vauxhall for racing driver

Raymond Mays Thomas Raymond Mays (1 August 1899 – 6 January 1980) was an auto racing driver and entrepreneur from Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. He attended Oundle School, where he met Amherst Villiers, leaving at the end of 1917. After army service i ...

. He designed the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird which

used to break the

land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...

in 1927 with an average speed of 174.88 mph. The 'Blower Bentley' was developed in ' Bentley Boy' Henry 'Tim' Birkin's workshop in 1929, using an Amherst Villiers supercharger bolted to the front of a

Bentley 4½ Litre The Bentley 4½ Litre is a British car based on a rolling chassis built by Bentley Motors. Walter Owen Bentley replaced the Bentley 3 Litre with a more powerful car by increasing its engine displacement to . A racing variant was known as the Blo ...

, to boost its maximum power in the production version to . The first of five racing specials was the

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...

-designed Bentley Blower No.1, which had an output of . The Blower Bentley's never won a major race, but it set new lap records at

. Apart from the racing specials, fifty production blower Bentleys were built in order that the car could be entered at Le Mans. In 1930 he bought from the Air Ministry one of the Gloster IV biplanes which had been used by the RAF High Speed Flight as practice machines for the

Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded annually (and later, biennially) to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flyin ...

. He was planning to install an unsupercharged geared

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in prod ...

racing engine and remove the floats for an attempt to break the world air speed record, but the plans did not come to fruition. In 1936 Villiers developed a 120/130 hp four-cylinder aero engine, the Amherst Villiers Maya I (named after his wife). The engine was first tested in a B.A. Eagle and later in Villiers' own

Miles Whitney Straight The Miles M.11 Whitney Straight was a 1930s twin-seat cabin monoplane designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Miles Aircraft. It was named after Whitney Straight, a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator and businessman. Th ...

, but did not go into production. During the Second World War he served as a ferry pilot. After the war he joined the " Brain drain" of scientists and engineers moving to the United States to work on the space programme. He became a portrait painter in New York, and his portraits of his friends Ian Fleming and Graham Hill hang in the National Portrait Gallery in London. In Fleming's first

novel, ''Casino Royale'', Bond drives a 4.5-litre Bentley with the Amherst Villiers supercharger.

Personal life

Charles Amherst Villiers married, first, Maya de Lisle Adam. After they were divorced he married Juanita Lorraine Brown. Juanita Lorraine Brown Villiers and Charles Amherst Villiers had two children, Charles Churchill Villiers and Veronica Jane Villiers.Robert Lewin Hunter
The Peerage He died on 12 December 1991.

References

Bibliography

Official Author Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, Charles Amherst 1900 births 1991 deaths

Amherst Villiers Amherst Villiers (1900–1991) was an English automotive, aeronautical and astronautic engineer and portrait painter. He designed a land speed record-breaking car for Malcolm Campbell, and developed the supercharged "Blower Bentley", driven b ...

People educated at Oundle School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge British automobile designers Land speed record people Superchargers