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).
Letter from 'Bly.' to 'Rm' discussing Bentley publicity, a special 'Paulin' car, and concerns about experimental bearing failures.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\3\ scan0001 | |
| Date | 1st December 1938 guessed | |
| 1379 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} from Bly.{B. W. Bleaney - Bentley Sales} Dear Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}, Re: Bentley Publicity. I was glad to have had a chat with you yesterday because it has cleared points in my mind concerning Bentleys. I was very interested to read the notes you left with me and I am returning these herewith. I have answered the points raised in your notes as per attached. I have been under a misapprehension. My chief point against running the Paulin car was that it was of special construction, in as much as the bonnet and radiator were not standard by any means, and in this case would not be offered to the public. I was not aware, until my talk with you yesterday, that we would be agreeable to supplying a duplicate or anything like this, as far as reconstruction of the front is concerned. The fact that we will places a [handwritten squiggle over 'places a'] different complexion on the whole matter. I would naturally like to see a more orthodox type of car but not at the sacrifice of 13 m.p.h. If we can offer it at 95 to 100 m.p.h. then I think it would be worth while. Please do not misunderstand me - I am not against streamlining at all if we can get normal accommodation and luggage, and also, [handwritten annotation 'without' above 'if it'] if it means altering the design of the radiator, etc., & it could be offered for sale, in other words if we are proposing to offer a Continental model then it would be excellent propoganda. With regard to bearings, it is not so much we have an inferiority complex so far as our own bearings go, because we are all aware that we have had some colossal mileages on our cars. For instance our first three demonstration cars did approximately 40,000 each in the first year, driven by Tom, Dick and Harry. What I did not understand was why we should all of a sudden get so many breakdowns. Had I known it was of purely an experimental nature this would have relieved my mind considerably. I little thought that experiments of this kind were tried out on customers, neither did I think that we would lend ourselves to such an expensive form of experiment. As I mentioned to you, we have been endeavouring to get people to pay for bearing breakdowns at 30,000. This rather made me think that there was something wrong somewhere, and that the matter ought to be raised, in view of the trouble becoming known among owners, as mentioned in my note. Now I am glad to think that it was entirely experimental | ||