Living Moments - N°5 Edition 2018

interview I richard Charlesworth Mr. Charlesworth, in what way has Bentley enhanced your life? I was lucky enough to work for 40 years for a company that builds the car I love. I also enjoyed meeting a number of interesting people during my career including customers, em- ployees and journalists. How did Bentley enter your life? I grew up in Crewe. My parents were farmers and we could see the fac- tory, where Bentley and Rolls Royce were built at the time, from our field. So I went over to the neighbours, knocked on their door and asked if they maybe had a job for me, then I started to work in the sales and mar- keting department. What was the reason for the merger between Bentley and Rolls Royce in 1931? The engineers at Bentley and Royce both gained their first experience at the railway and applied this exper- tise later in the construction of their cars. They focused on large volume engines, which deliver maximum performance with low resolutions. Bentley built excellent sports cars but had economic problems, which gave Royce the opportunity to incor- porate the threatening competitor. Why was this extremely British brand taken over by a German group in 1998? Due to the fact that Rolls Royce and Bentley consistently lagged behind their competitors in the luxury class on a technological level and did not have the resources to be able to invest enough in research, the British con- cern Vickers had to sell their shares. VW won the bidding war against BMW, which nevertheless was able to secure the rights to the trademark Rolls Royce. EXP 12 Speed 6e (Study for a purely electric Bentley) Scetching a Continental Supersports Fotos: © Bentley, Text: Cosmopolite media+relations GmbH, Autor: Sabrina Kaiser-Kossmayr 72 EDITION N°5 • 2018 Living Moments