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 detailing negative first impressions of a Bentley, focusing on poor handling, suspension issues, and headlamp wobble.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90\3\ scan0006 | |
| Date | 18th July 1934 | |
| Copy. The Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd. Hayes, Middlesex. 18th July 1934. My dear Lappin, I promised to write and give you my first impression of the Bentley. I am sorry to say that I am extremely disappointed, not with the performance which is apparently up to standard, but with the other qualities of the car. You will recollect that the feature which made the greatest impression on myself and on Staniland and Wright and others who drove the demonstration car was the limpet-like manner in which it adhered to the road. I remember my own comment was that I thought the car too small but that its holding qualities were such I felt competent it would beat anything on the road. The present car dances about in a most alarming fashion and literally I am not exaggerating when I say it is no better than the Ford V.8 now that the latter has been fitted with remote control shock absorbers. In fact in my initial run down to Hamble on Thursday night I nearly turned the car over. The movement of the front of the car is most pronounced, terrific dither being set up on the frontaxle on bad roads. The headlamp wobble is not only noticeable from the driving seat but it is so bad that it operates the dimming mechanism and for the most part of the time my head-lamp was striking a sort of medium between full lamp and dim. This also nearly caused an accident. You will note on trial that the vibration of the lamps produces a continuous movement of the dip gear shortening the beam in a most disconcerting manner. The bouncing and swaying of the car is extremely fatiguing to the driver and makes it impossible to utilise the full performance of the car. Presumably the shock absorbers are completely out of adjustment or there is something mechanically wrong with them and if it is felt that the demonstration car were shock-absorbed down to an extent that is not practicable on so light a chassis for production purposes I think my own should be brought down to that value. | ||