Customer feedback on the 6-cylinder Bentley and its performance comparison to a Phantom and Sunbeam.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 21\2\ Scan039 | |
| Date | 25th March 1927 | |
| S/L (HS {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} ) x3805 BJ. copies to PN. {Mr Northey} Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} OWB. Bt {Capt. J. S. Burt - Engineer} 17/LH {Mr Haworth} 25.3.27. I received this morning a personal letter from Mr. C.R. Skinner, who you will remember has had a number of our cars since the war, and has criticised us very severely at times, although he is happy at the moment with his latest Phantom. Mr. Skinner is a pretty close critic of a car, and I think, therefore, you may like to know his remarks regarding the 6-cylinder Bentley. "Bentleys have made a huge patrol tank, tyre carrier at the back, really beautiful fairings over the frame sides, wings and all to match - £25 extra only. It is a funny car. I am not quite sure I like it, but Nina is entranced with it. (This is very depressing as Mrs. Skinner has been a strong R.R. enthusiast, and has undoubtedly helped us enormously in the sale of the last car. "The car I tried had a 3.33 axle ratio. (Phantom is 3.4.) They say it does 95 m.p.h. at 3000 r.p.m. It really does four m.p.h. and gets away with it. The top speed performance is astounding. Clutch gears and idling are not so good as the Phantom, nor is the steering lock, but the top speed slow running is better and on magnetos only. The revolution counter, if accurate, was showing 150 r.p.m. over 1/2 mile and when opened out there was no unpleasant vibration. The engine is dead silent for a very marked carburetter hiss, and the exhaust is much quieter than R.R. The general feel of the car is like a 3 litre Sunbeam with a dead silent engine. I feel about it that anyone who bought one in preference to RR for a closed car is a mug, but that it is a better car for my work. It is not umpteen feet up in the air, and it does hold the road, having that curious feeling you get in the 3 litre. I have at last found a coachbuilder who makes what I want - Connaughts body on the Sunbeam is most satisfactory. Incidentally, the Bentley has got Vanden Plas version of our Hooper. I need not say it is much better. One rarely finds | ||
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).