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).
Evolution of the Bentley frontal appearance design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0318 | |
| Date | 6th March 1939 | |
| SECRET 1021 To Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}. from Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} C.c. Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Gry{Shadwell Grylls} Have a look at these Jones Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Bentley Frontal Appearance. For some while we have been working at trying to clean up the frontal appearance of the Bentley car. The B.5. will have to start with the front it now has but we feel that in a year or so, a move will have to be made even on the normal cars to do away with the Christmas Tree arrangement of lamps and horns, and to reduce the air-churning effect of the front. Even though we shall sell but a few Corniche Bentleys, they will tend to set a fashion and to educate the Bentley public as a whole. Even to them it will be apparent that the Corniche differs from the standard mainly in its frontal aspect. We have made several designs, tackling the problem in stages, and these are shewn on PD.380 ( 3 sheets) herewith. The first move was to raise the cat-walks and sit some Marchal lamps upon them ( see sheet 1). No room was then available for windtone horns so high frequency horns were shrouded in the wing valance. This amount of cleaning up made the present front bumper look like a piece of old iron bedstead, so we evolved the more emollient form of bumper shewn. The resulting design appeared quite good but we felt we had not got much further than the Yanks had a few years ago. We decided to put the headlamps in the wings ( see sheet 2). It then became apparent that the horns would have to be hidden behind wing valances. Still more so now the fog lamps appeared to be the last articles on the Christmas tree. To house them in the wing valance, the latter had to come forward, and with it the radiator. For the radiator to advance and not look like a bus, it had to narrow and cease to be plated. On this basis we proceeded to produce Sheet 3. Continued...... | ||