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).
Potential publicity articles on car body construction, product durability, and performance.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\3\ scan0014 | |
| Date | 29th November 1938 | |
| -2- A fourth, on the Park ward body construction and its potentialities in connection with the use of light alloys. Tresilian might write this. (2) THE DURABILITY OF THE PRODUCT. Here again an exceedingly interesting article could be written explaining how easy it is to make a high performance car which will not last, and how difficult to make one that will give satisfaction if driven hard for 80,000 miles. The Schneider Trophy engine might be used as an example of minimum life for maximum performance. The appearance of an engine after a 5 hour race might be contrasted with its strip after 10,000 miles on the road. Correspondence Columns in the Press. This could be backed up by letters from our friendly owners in the correspondence columns giving examples of the durability of their Bentleys, i.e., E.R. Hall and all his practising for the Mille Miglia, Raymond Mays ditto. There are also one or two normal owners who might be persuaded to write interesting letters. One man, a Mr. Banks, recently asked me if I thought his car ought to be decarbonised as he had covered 55,000 miles without any detonation. I believe he did 75,000 miles before finally having the engine stripped. Charles Faroux could probably be persuaded to write about the astonishing reliability of the Bentley cars that have acted as official cars for the 24 hr. races covering long distances at maximum speeds. This might be answered by someone who had heard of Wimilles' run from Paris to Nice in 10 1/2 hours. Arratoun might write about his U.S.A. trip. (3) THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BENTLEY. To-day there does not seem to be any really effective way of putting over performance except by means of a 'stunt'. The best bit of publicity we ever had in this respect was, undoubtedly, the Tourist Trophy Race, which, of course, is in itself a 'stunt'. Obviously, the objective is to get the maximum amount of result from the minimum amount of effort, particularly having regard to the extensive programme already in hand in the Experimental Dept. | ||