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).
Fitting Jackall jacks, a new body design for a Bentley, and concerns over increased weight and customer preferences.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 3\6\ 06-page298 | |
| Date | 30th October 1934 | |
| v6553 To Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}: Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}23/KW.30.10.34. Jacks: Replying to your note about the Jackall We do want to test some of these on a Bentley and if we do not like the well being removed from the floorboard on the passenger's side we may remove the jacks. We think, however, that Smith's will have to find somewhere else to put their apparatus, though we appreciate this may be difficult. If they cannot find somewhere else to fit it they will lose a lot of sales. I have written to Mr. Nichols to this effect. We have now had an opportunity of inspecting 4-B-IV with the new body and generally speaking we think the room provided, and the layout, excellent. The appearance was criticised by several people at Olympia because the luggage tray comes out rather abruptly from the body itself. Doubtless you have means of improving the appearance under consideration. One thing that somewhat concerned me was that the weight of this car was 33+ cwts. This was with the single piece wings which I understood gave a definite saving in weight. This extra weight of course materially reduces the performance of the car. I would be most interested to have a weight analysis showing the difference between this body and our original Bentley bodies. I do not know how much of the increase in weight is due to improved methods of construction and how much to the dimensions of the body being increased. What does alarm me, however, is to find that customers cannot have the original small Bentley body as a standard Saloon even if they want it because it is no longer being made. In the last three weeks six people I know have bought Bentley cars. Four of them propose to use the car primarily as a two-seater and have no interest in the increased body room. They will all be disappointed with the performance if it is going to be similar to that of 4-B-IV. Two of them are not interested in performance and will be delighted with this type of body. Thus it will be seen that less than 50% of these particular customers will be getting what they want due to the modification in the standardised saloon. | ||