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).
Secret internal memorandum outlining a publicity plan for Bentley automobiles.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\3\ scan0013 | |
| Date | 29th November 1938 | |
| SECRET. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/R.29.11.38. BENTLEY PUBLICITY. OBJECTIVE. To counteract the impression that, owing to the aero expansion programme, Rolls-Royce are no longer taking an active interest in Automobile production, and, in consequence, are now being challenged successfully by S.S. Jaguar and Lagondas. We suggest that the bid for publicity should be divided into three sections:- (1) The engineering organisation behind the product. (2) The durability of the product. (3) The performance of the Bentley. (1) THE ENGINEERING ORGANISATION BEHIND THE PRODUCT. Geoffrey Smith has complained that we will not write articles for him. We suggest that without giving away any particularly confidential information we write up our Engineering Dept. for him, covering the expensive apparatus available, the varied field covered, our meticulous weight analysis, the searching test schedules before standardisation, and the research work undertaken in the form of single cylinder work and investigation into bearings, cylinder bore wear, crankshafts, etc. "The Bystander" might be interested sufficiently to get Norman Parkinson to take some photographs. The first article might be followed by one on the road test schedules with a brief resume of our Continental testing and a suggestion of the number of miles a new model covers in our hands before the first customer takes delivery. (In the case of the Wraith over 1/4 million miles). A third article might be devoted to the development of the R.R. bearing material on the Bentley. Photographs of the new R.R. Laboratory could be featured. | ||