Roller coaster
I AM a steam traction man myself, but I had to admire the Rolls-Royces and Bent- leys parked at Towcester while their owners plotted to bid for Rolls-Royce Motors. They think that £680 million should do it, and at that price the loudest sound would be the ticking of the merchant bankers' clock. Its present owners, Vickers, want to sell it because of its low rate of miles per gallon. They have got tired of having to put up so much new money to produce new models. Some Vickers directors thought that, like the makers of the Morgan sports car, they should go on producing the same model until it was so out of date as to be unique. I hope that the Roller owners will take this idea further. They should abandon today's models, which look quite like other cars. They should get the old jigs and tools out of store at Crewe and set the works to making the great models of the past. They should restore the temple-like proportions of the Roller's radiator. While they are at it, they should reissue the Rolls-Royce owners' handbook in which every sentence began: 'Instruct your driver to . . '. They might accommodate one innovation. I long to see a steam Roller.
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