READERS’ LETTERS

YOUR SHOUT

Got something to say about anything Rolls-Royce or Bentley related? Then we want to hear it!

Send an email to rrb.ed@kelsey.co.uk or write to: The Editor, Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL

TO A GENEROUS OWNER

I am compelled to write about my experiences with a pre-war RollsRoyce in Southport. My daughters and I had attended a regional classic car show last summer, where it was soon apparent that the majority of car owners had no intention of talking to us about their cars or letting us near enough to look into them.

As we were about to leave, we saw a very attractive RollsRoyce with landaulette bodywork. Being an Armstrong-Siddeley man I was drawn towards its high-quality coachbuilding. Our day was very much recovered when not only the owner of the vehicle in question happily spoke at length, and in detail about the car but also let us sit inside and experience his West of England cloth for ourselves. So I would firstly like to thank whoever it was and secondly ask who the likely coachbuilder may have been, for I would very much like a similar car.

Geoffrey Arbuthnot Lytham St Annes

Quite a number of firms bodied Rolls-Royces in the 1920s and ‘30s, some offering landaulettes to those who favoured a convertible rear compartment. Top of the list would be Barker, Hooper, Thrupp & Maberley, perhaps Park Ward. To the owner - were you that man? It sounds a beautiful car. If you still have it, please get in touch, as we’d love to picture it in the magazine - Ed

ROCK STAR ROLLS-ROYCE?

As l have been a chauffeur for the rich and famous for 31 years, I thought it was time I bought a Rolls myself. I have recently bought a Shadow I from a well-known record producer, and he showed me this photo of an interesting project that was done for the cover of an Oasis album back in 1997. It reminded me of the RollsRoyce used on the cover of the Screaming Lord Sutch album that featured in From the Archives in your last issue, so I thought I’d send it along. I don’t know what happened what to the Rolls in the pool, but I thought your readers might find it interesting.

Paul Sutton Fricker Bath, Somerset

Thanks Paul. In fact, your email got me started on a bit of a quest, which led me to the man who took the original photos. See page 88 for the whole story - Ed

UNBORN BENTLEYS & R-Rs

I wonder if fellow readers of RollsRoyce & Bentley Driver ever indulge in a game of ‘what if?’ The car that got me thinking about this was a Vanden-Plas 4-litre R, that Farinastyled saloon that amounted to a luxury version of an Austin A99 Westminster, but with a RollsRoyce six-cylinder engine. I’d never realised the rear was so similar to the contemporary Mercedes saloon, complete with horizontal lights and small fins. I know RollsRoyce were contemplating their own version of the Vanden Plas, or indeed other smaller saloons and coupés badged as Bentleys, none of which came about. So the game goes like this: what if they had?

I can see two possible outcomes, one pessimistic and one optimistic. The pessimistic view is that both the Rolls-Royce and Bentley names would have been cheapened by smaller models, especially those based on BMC cars such as the Austin A99 or the Austin 3-litre, which was another idea. A closer relationship with BMC may have led to Rolls-Royce becoming a part of British Leyland when the car-making and aeroengine businesses were split in 1971, and after that, anything could have happened – including the demise of the brands altogether, or their re-emergence as Chinese-built massmarket SUVs, like the current MG.

The optimistic view is more attractive, but probably less realistic. Rolls-Royce could have used the Bentley brand to offer a saloon-car niche below R-R’s previous output, competing with Jaguar and Daimler and giving the buyer of a Rover 3500 something to aspire to. With the right car, Britain could have led the way in the executive express market rather than ceding it to Mercedes, BMW and eventually Audi. Estate cars and coupés or GT models on the same platforms could have increased sales still further, feeding profit back into Rolls-Royce Motors and making the eventual split and consequent sale of the two brands to BMW and VW unnecessary.

It's a lot to invent from one glance at the back of a VandenPlas ‘R’, but what better subject to daydream about than RollsRoyces and Bentleys?

Julian Ridge Lucca, Italy

We’d welcome readers' views on the above! Is it time for a feature on the Rolls-Royce and Bentley models that never made it to market? - Ed

OUT OF GUINNESS

Sorry to learn Paul Guinness has moved on to another title. Four years of his stewardship of the magazine has been a happy and successful time, increasing subscriptions and interest in the magazine. He and the team, despite a difficult two years, have maintained the excellent quality of the magazine, in terms of production, but also the wonderful range of articles.

I send his successor good wishes in maintaining this. Good luck, and I look forward to a continuing range of entertaining and interesting articles.

Stephen Williams Croydon, Surrey

Thanks very much for your letter, Stephen. I will try my best to hit the same standards and I’m lucky to have Paul only a phone call away. He still cares about the magazine a great deal and has done everything to help me into the role – Ed.