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).
Delays and disputes regarding the Phantom III chassis development and readiness for public sale, comparing progress with competitors.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 148\5\ scan0121 | |
| Date | 4th September 1936 | |
| To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}1/KW.4.9.36. Chassis Costs. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} has shown me your Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}8/E.1.9.36. The last thing we want to do is to hand blame which the Experimental Dept. should shoulder on to somebody else. However, we definitely dispute your final statement that we "sold" the Phantom III chassis to Sales much too soon. The only written statement we have ever made, as far as we know, on when the Ph.III would be ready to deliver to the public was contained in Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}16/KW.22.2.35 addressed to yourself. We had then had one Ph.III in the Exptl. Dept. for 6 months. On page 4 of this memo. we said quite definitely that there would be no chance of selling this chassis to the public until the middle of 1936. From this you will see that we gave you 18 months' warning, and a final date which was just 4 weeks wrong. We believe that you still really think we have been slow on the Ph.III. The time the car is on the drawing board does not help the Exptl. Dept. very much. You are perfectly right that it has taken 2 years since the first experimental car was on the road, until it reached the customer. The other day we went to Rovers and asked them how they were getting along with independent suspension. They said they were beginning to form some sort of an opinion on what to make. They showed us a car fitted with the Gordon Armstrong suspension that had done 22,000 miles; they showed us a chassis fitted with torsion rods which had been on the road rather more than 12 months; they showed us a car fitted up with the Girling independent wheel springing. Here is a small Company with nothing like the reputation of Rolls-Royce, who do 12 months concentrated development work on one item on the chassis that they expect to be the next to require alteration, before they start drawing anything for production, and it will certainly be more than 2 years from the time the first car went on the road to the time the car is delivered to the customer with independent suspension. | ||