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).
Development of a small car, market positioning, and technical considerations.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 148\5\ scan0096 | |
| Date | 19th November 1935 | |
| -5- Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}3/KW.19.11.35. The Bentley chassis with a Peregrine unit and 4" taken out of the frame length due to the shorter unit would, we believe, make an ideal small car suitable for the wives of Rolls-Royce and Bentley owners to drive, and having at least twice the market of the existing Bentley. The latest developments on steel coachwork indicate that in the quantities required, bodies for the car might be available far more cheaply than heretofor. Many economical proprietary parts that we have tested on the Bentley and had to turn down because of the extreme performance required of this car could be utilised on this small, less highly stressed chassis, and give perfectly satisfactory results. Examples being a small Marles steering and Girling brakes without a servo. It may be questioned why we are reviving the small car project. The reply is that the Peregrine engine being in existence and the re-design of the Bentley chassis being inevitable, it is a chance of backing ourselves both ways with the minimum additional expenditure of money and energy. Furthermore, that in our opinion the large car, even in its much more attractive guise as exemplified by the SpectreCodename for Phantom III, is a steadily declining market. In spite of the initial flood of orders, which may in part be attributed to the wave of prosperity now sweeping the country, we are convinced that when we settle down to production the average demand for the SpectreCodename for Phantom III will be considerably less than the average demand for the Phantom II twelve months after being put on the market, in spite of the fact that Ph.III is far more ahead of the rest of our products than Ph.II ever was. We base our opinion on English traffic conditions and American precedent. America, by reason of its size, is the country for the large car par excellence, and yet in the recent automobile boom the big car has in no way staged the same come-back as the medium sized vehicle, as is illustrated by the attached list, one of many published in American papers. We believe that in the small quality car outlined above we have a product that we can sell to a large proportion of our existing customers, both R.R. and Bentley, as a second car, and at the same time open up a considerable field hitherto untouched. We cannot believe that, on the specification suggested, the complete car cannot be sold with a large margin of profit at £990 complete. | ||