Repair of a chassis and options for experimental and production bodywork.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 88\2\ scan0171 | |
| Date | 3rd March 1936 | |
| [Handwritten top] Hd. {Mr Hayward / Mr Huddy} x260 S/W {Sales / Derby Works} Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Please note & return Hd. {Mr Hayward / Mr Huddy} Wor {Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} agress to you going ahead. MT Rm {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Kt Hw / C14/03.3.36 [Stamped] Re 4-B-4. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 4/KW23.36. [Typed body] I note that the above chassis is repairable and that you recommend it being re-built right away. Will you please give instructions accordingly. As regards the body, we note you think this is repairable, and we think the best thing would be for you to send it to Park.Wards with all its appurtenances straight away, and we can then go into the matter of costs to see whether it is worth repairing or not. Perhaps you will advise us when it has been despatched. As regards the body for this chassis, we agree that this chassis should be used for body experimental work, as we are able to get good information from it. What body we shall put on we can decide when the chassis is somewhere near ready, but our views are that you have tried out in principle the all-steel body and it has been so satisfactory that we have ordered 50 of them; so that at the moment, apart from the rusting question, we do not think we can learn much more. On the other hand it must be remembered that these steel bodies are only made by one manufacturer and the bodies he will build will not represent more than, at the outside, 50% of the bodies fitted to the Bentley chassis. We can reckon that the other Coachbuilders who will build the other 50% are not in a position, at the moment anyway, to build steel bodies. Therefore we want some intermediate stage which will help the wood and aluminium body to stand up better, and it seems to us that the Silentbloc principle may prove to be this intermediate stage. We are accordingly very anxious to get as much running as possible on this; so that at the moment we think Lp {Mr Lappin} 's car is probably the best to put this body on to. We know that you have the Van Vooren body, but we want to try out a body built by an English coachbuilder of a design and in other respects of a type that our customers will buy. The Van Vooren body we should turn down from many points of view. However, we propose postponing this decision for a month. [Handwritten signature] portes [Typed] C. | ||
From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).