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).
Performance testing of a Bentley at Montlhéry against a Bugatti, and coordinating logistics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90\1\ Scan047 | |
| Date | 7th December 1933 | |
| To "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}" Derby Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 8261. Showrooms Sr3/MLG.7.12.33 Thank you very much indeed for the extremely useful and interesting information communicated in your memo Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}20/XT.I.12.33. I am "tickled to death" to hear of the performance of the Bentley fitted with the body in question, and I sincerely hope that you will try out the car over here at Montlery. My main reason for hoping you will test the car in France is that Bugatti with their latest 3.3 double camshaft have already carried out a similar test at Montlery. A speed of 153 kms per hour was obtained. Naturally Messrs. Bugatti have made use of this test and mention of it and the speed attained has been made in recent publicity. You can therefore imagine how pleased we would be if it were possible for us to tell certain of the speed merchants over here that with a streamlined body we attained 160 kms per hour. I quite endorse your point of view in regard to bicycle wings. I have vague memories of a nasty " dust up" with a Grand Prix Amilcar in days gone by owing to one of these wings falling off at the wrong moment . Your memo Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2.XT.2.12.33 received my immediate attention. As I have already mentioned to you we were fortunate enough to get Mr. Perouse , Président de la{L. A. Archer} Commission Sportive de l'Automobile Club de France, to try the Bentley and naturally made a friend of him. He is the "big noise" at Montlery and I am communicating with him to know exactly what one must do. With regard to the closing of the track before Xmas, I do not think there is any fear of this . With regard to the official timing, if my recollections are correct, one has to give the Automobile Club 24 hours notice . In addition it is apparently necessary to call for the official timekeeper at the Place de la{L. A. Archer} Concorde, take him to Montlery and back again . However, I will confirm if this is correct. When I was last at Montlery we were only able to use the road track which from a speed point of view is not very helpful. On this occasion , this was due to the presence of snow and ice on the speed track. This is the biggest snag at Montlery at this time of the year. I hope within a day or so to be able to send you an article by Mr. Faroux on the Bentley quoting various figures. From information already gleaned it would appear that this article will be very good. You have certainly turned out a very fine car. So far, amongst all the people over here who have tried this car, and know what a motor car should be , no criticisms have been made. | ||