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).
Coachwork design changes for the Park Ward Saloon, omitted features on Bentley saloons, and issues with front wing cracking.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 84\1\ scan0340 | |
| Date | 7th November 1934 guessed | |
| - sheet 2 - knowledge they gained and leakages of information occurred (e.g. F.2. announcement). The standardised Park Ward Saloon has gone up in weight as mentioned chiefly because the coachwork design has been changed, by adding a swept back with rear flaps to conceal the RR. luggage grid, necessarily adding length and weight to the body. The first batch of Bentley saloons by Park Wards were not built to our design, which was tested on the 10,000 miles experimental cars. On the recommendation of the coachbuilder the following features of our design were omitted. (1) Steel wheel arches. (2) Steel bottom sides. (3) Quirks to the pillars. (4) Certain features of the ironing. The Bentley chassis calls for very specially constructed coachwork because it is a light car which is driven at a higher average speed than the Rolls, and has stiffer springing and heavier damping. We suggest that the cracking of the front wings is a feature which can hardly be treated as a coachwork fault. The cause is the excessive movement of the front of the chassis and it is only a short while ago that we succeeded in finding a cure, i.e. the fitting of a stabilising bumper. The isolation of the wing and step now being used by the coachbuilder may be a cure, but no tests have been carried out to substantiate this. EV.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} | ||