Guide To Rolls Royce Ogilvy

A guide to Rolls-Royce comforts and graces

The Best Car in the World eschews useless gadgetry. It does, however, minister royally to a civilized taste for creature comforts.

The Rolls-Royce and its fraternal twin, the Bentley, are designed for people who are determined to live well while in transit. There are few reasonable desires which the owner cannot satisfy by pressing a button, pulling a lever, or flicking a switch. For example, if the road surface is not to your liking, you can, in effect, change it. A switch on the steering column lets you adjust the shock absorbers to suit driving conditions. You harden or soften the ride at will. 'Rough roads pass almost unnoticed,' writes Gordon Wilkins, motoring correspondent of The Observer, 'for they neither shock the occupants nor assail their ears with drumming noises.' The noise from other cars distresses you, you can close the windows and still get fresh air through an efficient ventilating system. Within your Rolls-Royce, blessed silence reigns. You can converse in discreet whispers. Three walnut picnic tables are among the graces of the Rolls-Royce and Bentley. One slides out from the dash—an ideal place for a road map. Two others fold down behind the front seats. They make fine work surfaces upon which the children can rest their coloring books to keep them quietly amused on long trips. The rake of the front seats is individually adjustable. The driver can sit erect for a commanding view of the road while his companion reclines. Each has his own set of arm-rests which adjust to suit his fancy. The seats are as cozy as club chairs. You nestle into them. They are covered with the same English leather used on seats in the House of Commons. Eight hides are used—enough to make 128 pairs of shoes. There are two illuminated vanity mirrors in niches in the rear quarters of the Rolls-Royce. Ladies may thus perfect their make-up in privacy before leaving the car. Here you see the rear window defroster. Or, rather, you do not see it. It consists of a heating element of 1,360 nearly invisible wires moulded into the glass—wires finer than a human hair. At the flick of a switch, mist and frost are cleared electrically. Much of the interior is surfaced with French walnut which has been hand-polished by English craftsmen. Notes are made on the hue and burl of the walnut used in each car, and are filed under your serial number. If a portion of the wood should ever be damaged, it can be matched flawlessly in grain and finish.

The gas tank cannot be opened without the driver’s consent. You unlock it electrically from a button on the dash. And you should never run out of gas. A green light on the instrument panel starts winking when your supply dwindles to the last three gallons. Your luggage rides here in carpeted seclusion. It can never be soiled by the spare wheel, which occupies a separate compartment under the luggage. You can test the air pressure in the spare through a special port without removing the tire. Under a hatch in the wheel compartment you will find an assortment of cadmium-plated tools and replacement bulbs. They rest in a fitted case of sponge rubber—further evidence of Rolls-Royce’s obsession with peace and quiet. Corrosion is held at bay by a plating of chromium or cadmium on every nut, bolt, washer and cotter pin. Even the tail pipe is chromed. A dictating machine, an Espresso coffee maker, an electric razor, a bed, a telephone, and water for washing are available as optional extra conveniences. The basic convenience of the Rolls-Royce is, of course, its magnificent riding qualities. Even at 100 m.p.h. (laws permitting) you have a feeling of sublime safety. Yet the 4700-pound car is delicately maneuverable. The power-assisted steering is, according to Robert Glenton in the Sunday Express, 'as delicate as the plop of a pearl into a glass of champagne...' The power brakes will halt the car squarely from 100 m.p.h. without a tremor. And there are three independent brake linkages—two hydraulic and one mechanical. In the unlikely event that one linkage should fail, the others automatically keep the car under perfect control.

If you desire the rewarding experience of driving a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, write Rolls-Royce, Inc., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, Circle 5-1144, or telephone to one of the dealers listed on page 62.