The Man Who Supercharged Bond

The extraordinary story of Charles Amherst Villiers

RRP: £25.00
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978 1 84425 468 2

The remarkable Charles Amherst Villiers played a key role in pre-war British motor sport, designed Malcolm Campbell's first land speed record-breaking Bluebird, did the initial design drawings for Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, spent 20 years on the US space programme, and painted portraits so fine that his work was on display in London's National Portrait Gallery - and this brilliant maverick could have achieved even more had he been as good with people as he was with engines.

The Man Who Supercharged Bond details the long and fascinating life of Amherst Villiers. A cousin of Winston Churchill and born into the British aristocracy, Villiers first came to prominence by supercharging the Blower Bentley that did battle with Mercedes at Le Mans. The author explains why Villiers' supercharger sticks proudly beyond the radiator, why he sued Bentley, and how a car that never won a race of significance has become one of the most desirable classics of all time.

Malcolm Campbell's first land speed record-breaking Bluebird was designed by Villiers but he walked away from the project before the record was clinched - The Man Who Supercharged Bond explains why.

A switch into aeronautic engineering culminated in a daring design for a six-engine, double-decker, transatlantic aircraft, before Villiers moved to the US to devote himself to rocketry, designing the gyroscope that helped win his company contracts for Poseidon and Polaris, and advising on the optimal route for Man's to journey to Mars.

This remarkable Renaissance Man was also a gifted artist, studying under portrait painter Pietro Annigoni in Florence, and painting subjects as varied as Pope John Paul II, racing driver Graham Hill and James Bond writer Ian Fleming. Indeed, Fleming was so engaged with his friend that 007's 'only hobby' was a Blower Bentley, and Villiers was asked to provide the initial design drawings for Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.

At an age when most men retire, Villiers returned to front-line motor racing, advising on the engine that propelled Graham Hill to his first World Championship. His revolutionary Grand Prix engine design a decade later was only aborted by Hill's fatal air accident.

The author, Paul Kenny, has studied the numerous strands of Villiers' extraordinary life in exhaustive detail and woven them together into an enthralling tale - The Man Who Supercharged Bond.

Paul Kenny was raised in Cheshire and studied archaeology at Newcastle University. A lifelong motor racing enthusiast, he has written for Motor Sport and lectured at Brooklands. He manages a UK business unit of a Wall Street-quoted corporation, and lives in Teddington, Middlesex, with his wife and three children.

See the website - www.themanwhosuperchargedbond.com

• Family - how his strong will was forged in the wake of his father's singular Parliamentary career and his mother's determination to marry for love rather than money, and why his cousin Winston Churchill became godfather to his son
• Cordon Rouge and Cordon Bleu - how Villiers delivered almost twice as many revs from the Brescia Bugatti, prompting Ettore Bugatti to invite him to Molsheim to see his methods at first hand
• The world's first supercharged Rolls-Royce, and how, aged 90, Villiers came to be re-united with its supercharger
• The Villiers Supercharge - how he so enhanced the performance of Vauxhall's attempt at a Grand Prix car that it was still breaking records when it was 12 years old
• 'Bond drove it hard and well' - the friendship with Ian Fleming, why Fleming had 007 drive a Blower Bentley in the early Bond novels, and why Villiers gets a name check in the movie Casino Royale
• The aero-engine Villiers named after his wife, and his attempt on the world land-plane record
• The war - flying with the ATA, the U-boat attack on his ship, and his six-engine, twin-deck passenger aircraft design for the Canadian government
• His part in the US space programme, from Presidency of the American Rocket Society to Boeing's lunar vehicles and calculating the shortest route to Mars
• His consultancy work on the BRM engine that powered Graham Hill to his first World Championship
• Art - studying under Annigoni in Florence, the portraits of Hill and Fleming displayed in London's National Portrait Gallery, and his meeting with Pope John Paul II
• Villiers versus Rolls Royce - how Villiers' belief in his own legend turned his final project into a High Court action