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).
Performance, sales potential, and necessary modifications for the Paulin Bentley.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 161\1\ scan0217 | |
| Date | 29th September 1938 | |
| To Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} from Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Copy to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}BY re Paulin Bentley. Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}16/E31038 Many thanks for Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}6/R29.9.38. I note that I misunderstood what Punt intended to convey about the run up from Folkestone to London. I thoroughly agree with the last paragraph of your memo and that is more or less what I meant in the last paragraph of mine. I feel that this actual car is too much of a freak to cause us to worry very much about it or any like it with slight modifications. I do, however, believe that there is a good deal to be learnt from it and that you will quite probably be able to make some suggestions for reducing wind resistance on the standard Sports Bentley and thereby improve the performance. One point I want to make very clear and that is that the Bentley Sales people have frequently given me to understand that we lose more sales from lack of body space than lack of performance, by which I mean maximum speed in particular. I have verified from them again that this is definitely the case. I agree that there are a few speed enthusiasts who would buy a car such as the PaulinBentley but I am confident that the trouble it would cause us would not be worth the financial return and disturbance to the production programme of both chassis and bodies. From what Paris told us I gather that the brakes of the car would have to be improved very considerably because the lack of wind resistance on this car renders the standard brakes inefficient. Whether you have found this to be the case or not, I do not know but I just mention it as being another item which would probably require important modification. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} | ||