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).
Road demonstration of the 4.1/4 L motor-car, including customer impressions and a note on a steering modification.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\1\ Scan409 | |
| Date | 24th April 1936 | |
| X1248 [Handwritten at top] This may interest you. Total Car cot. 30.2 Cwt [Handwritten at top] Please return Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} [Handwritten in left margin] P Thanks AP PARIS Sr23/Dn/24.4.36 To: "RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}", Dear "RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}", As you know, I have been on the road for some fifteen days with a most amazing motor-car (B-8-GA), which, in demonstrating trim, weighed 1,530 Ks. Before going off at a tangent, I should like to say that I have never driven such a car, and nobody else apparently judging from the "fantasticos", "formidables", "inimaginables" which I have recently heard pronounced by all and sundry. However, the most enthusiastic of the lot, apart from Charles, who although he has not yet had an opportunity of trying the car, has told the world that it is the most amazing car ever built - is Count Trossi. The latter has always been a great critic of the Bentley, and in fact is, as you know, a great motor critic, being one of the few people who know anything about a motor-car. When he took the wheel of the 4.1/4 L. and drove it in racing style along the Moyenne Corniche between [handwritten and struck-through: Monte-Carlo] and Nice, accompanied by your humble servant sitting very tight by the side of him, he made various enthusiastic remarks about the car some of which are worth repeating, viz: 1º I should never have thought it were possible to build such a car. 2º I would have done better with this car yesterday (in the Grand Prix de Monaco) than with my Maserati. 3º I consider the 4.1/4 L. an 80% improvement on the 3½ L.. He added that the 4.1/4 L. was the most amazing car he had ever driven, and would have bought one right away had it not been for "sanctions". We came straight back to the Hotel, where we met Rovere, who, seeing Trossi at the wheel, came up to the car, and after Trossi had finished waving his hands about in true Continental fashion, as well as giving vent to his feelings with such words as "fantacissimo automobilia", etc., etc., Rovere within five minutes had placed his order for a car, and handed me his deposit. Well, so much for customers' impressions, and I will now proceed to give you mine, but before doing so, I should like to say that, incidentally, as you know, we washered up the spring in the side steering tube, placing two washers back and front of spring, making a total of four washers. Whether | ||