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 a customer expressing disappointment with the features of a new Bentley model and hesitation to place an order.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 89\4\ scan0363 | |
| Date | 7th October 1938 | |
| COPY 20, Fenchurch Street, E.C. 3. 7th October, 1938. Dear Major Cox, I much appreciate your having written to me about the new Bentley. Any news about the Bentley is always of interest to me albeit this time, alas, only of theoretical interest, for the decision I took some years ago never to buy a car without I.F.S. (not to mention synchromesh on second gear) is quite unshakeable - all the more so in the case of a very expensive car and a sports one at that. You have probably seen the letter that I wrote to Messrs Bentley Motors before I received advice of the new model. I can only add that my brother and I are both very disappointed at not being able to place immediate orders as we had hoped to do. Please forgive me if I confess frankly that I am now beginning to be afraid that by the time the Bentley has the features which I consider essential in a modern car, other features, such as a six cylinder engine, may have become out of date ! I sincerely hope my fear will prove unjustified. Yours sincerely, (signed ( Ernest J.Kleinwort. P.S. I have just received your letter of yesterday, for which I thank you. I thought I had seen a central gear lever in an illustration of the new Rolls-Royce, but on looking at it again I see that it must be the operating lever for the hydraulic jacks. Major L.Cox, 16, Conduit Street, W.1. | ||