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).
Issues with car bodies and the relationship with coachbuilders.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0010 | |
| Date | 14th October 1930 | |
| [Struck through: To S. From...g.] [Struck through: Copy to ...Wot.] [Struck through: By H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} R.{Sir Henry Royce} ...] re Bodies. Referring to H5/M1.10.0 I have read this with great interest and also given the matter considerable thought. I fully appreciate the anxiety you express in regard to bodies. It always has been a difficult question. I feel that there has not really been sufficient team work in the full consideration of this very difficult problem. As it is really the complete car that is the all-important question, it is quite evident that the coachbuilders with whom we chiefly deal are at least as important a part of our organization as any other department and that our interests are entirely one. There is no doubt that from time to time complete cars are put up to us for mild criticism or use which are found to be entirely unsuitable for our purpose or for sale because of certain noises, vibrations, bones etc. which have apparently developed since the body was fitted on which we, as the chassis builders, are inclined to feel could not exist if the chassis were left in its original state having no body fixed to it, a condition obviously of little use to any one - whilst at the same time the maker of the body will probably accuse our chassis of having certain periods of noise about it which are excessive and different from other chassis with which they have had experience, and which they allege are greatly contributing to the troubles complained of. I feel that it is of the greatest importance that we should establish between the coachbuilders and ourselves an understanding as to how our relative responsibility in this matter stands, as otherwise time is continually lost by irrelevant argument or mistaken views, and what is perhaps even more important is that we appear to fail to gain adequately from the experience of past failures in the construction of fresh bodies and complete cars, i.e. mistakes of the past are frequently repeated. | ||