Editing Henry Royce (section)

==Bentley and Merlin==
[[File:Roycestatue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Sir Henry Royce, standing outside the company's HQ at Moor Lane, Derby]]
In 1931, Rolls-Royce Ltd. bought out their rival firm of [[W. O. Bentley]]. A "20/25" engine was put into a chassis and a [[Bentley]] radiator fitted. An open four-seater body completed the picture. The engine was "hotted-up" and the car was taken down to West Wittering to get Royce's approval. They were somewhat apprehensive of what he would say, but he gave it his blessing. He told them that such a fast car should have a means by which the driver could adjust the stiffness of the suspension whilst they were driving, to suit the road conditions

A few years later the Royce conceived driver adjustable dampers evolved into a ground breaking "ride control" system which automatically adjusted the stiffness of the dampers to match the speed of the car - softer at low speed for better comfort and increasingly stiffer as the car went faster to provide better stability and response. In addition to this automatic control, the driver was still provided with a steering wheel mounted adjustment to tune the range of damping stiffness to suit their preference. 
 
Following the success of the "R” engine, it was clear that they had an engine that would be of use to the [[Royal Air Force]]. As no Government assistance was forthcoming at first, in the national interest they went ahead with development of what was called the "PV-12" engine (standing for Private Venture, 12-cylinder). The idea was to produce an engine of about the same performance as the "R”, albeit with a much longer life.  Rolls-Royce launched the PV-12 in October 1933  and the engine completed its first test in 1934, the year after Royce died. The PV-12 became the [[Rolls-Royce Merlin]] engine.