…or modified?

I read with much interest Mr Parks’ letter (September) in response to your article on the Bentley MKVI and Rolls-royce. How right he is. I decided to build a MKVI special (a 35-year itch that I had to scratch) and was dismayed at the absurd complexity of the mechanicals, in particular the braking system. When I pointed out these things to Bentley owners, the response was often the same: “They’re overengineered old boy, that’s what makes them such wonderful cars.”

They are not over-engineered, they are poorly designed! Any first- year graduate would have binned most of the designs before even considering them. In the main, it was left to some poor soul in the toolroom/machine shop to make sense of it and make it work – that’s where the real skill lies, and the quality of manufacture is peerless.

Much like Mr Parks, we junked the back axle and rod-brake set-up and fitted a narrowed Jensen axle with hydraulic drums (the same size), along with a vacuum servo. Spring shackle bushes went the same way in favour of oilite bronze.

Over-engineered? Pah!

Dave Bott

Via e-mail