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).
Analysis and comparison of a Jaguar car, focusing on manufacturing cost, body, and weight against a Bentley.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 126\5\ scan0087 | |
| Date | 15th September 1938 | |
| -3- In considering manufacturing cost, the simplicity of the Jaguar production programme must be taken into account and the fact that the Standard organisation is behind them. It is impossible to leave the question of cost without reference to the body. The general style and finish, though possibly open to expert criticism, is commented upon favourably by everyone. Since it is fitted to the smallest Jaguar which sells at £300, the cost of this body must be round about £80. It weighs less than our present Bentley body and has more room in it. We consider that this is only possible because Jaguars have appreciated the fact that in order to get cost down it is even more important to rationalise body production than chassis production, i.e., though they have three engine designs in their chassis range, identical body designs are fitted to every car they turn out. TECHNICAL ANALYSIS. Referring to the technical information we have gained from having the Jaguar car, one item in which we were interested was that of weight. The Jaguar is, approximately, 150 lbs lighter than the Bentley, and we have made a complete weight analysis of the car for the purpose of comparison. We attach a tabulated list showing where we are heavier than the Jaguar and how we account for our increase in weight. (B.II figures used for comparison). It will be seen that in every case we give the customer something for the weight increase which he does not get on the Jaguar. In some cases the increased weight goes into durability. The fact that Les.{Ivan A. Leslie} is going to continue to run this car should be of considerable value to us as it will demonstrate whether the life of the Jaguar is reasonable under ordinary English conditions. We are still satisfied that for a Rolls-Royce product our standardisation tests in France represent a desirable minimum figure for durability. There were four other major points on the Jaguar which seem of particular interest to us, and an investigation of these has yielded a considerable amount of information. The points were as follows:- | ||