Amherst Villiers
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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 by Henry Birkin and (in fiction) by
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
.


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 (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...
and at
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...
.


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 in ...
. He designed the
Napier-Campbell Blue Bird The Napier-Campbell Blue Bird was a land speed record car driven by Malcolm Campbell. Its designer was Amherst Villiers, C. Amherst Villiers and Campbell's regular mechanic Leo Villa supervised its construction. This was Campbell's first car to ...
which Malcolm Campbell used to break the
land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...
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 In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement (engine), displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically ...
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 ...
, 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 airfields, ...
-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
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 airfields, ...
. 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 first annually, and later biennially, to the winner of a race for seaplanes and ...
. He was planning to install an unsupercharged geared
Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, 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 ...
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, 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 Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...
and Graham Hill hang in the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...
in London. In Fleming's first
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
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 People educated at Oundle School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge British automobile designers Land speed record people Superchargers