It's a little-known fact that at one point after they purchased the bankrupt Bentley company, Rolls Royce did actually consider returning the marque to competition. In 1938 the 4½ litre V12 Lagonda was gaining road car sales from Bentley and in October of that year Earl Howe used one of Lagonda's demonstrators, which already had 40000 miles on the clock, to set off what would become something of a duel, averaging just over 101mph in an hour at Brooklands, despite having to change a blown tyre during the run. His fastest lap was clocked at 108 and he apparently averaged 105 in one 21-lap stint. Bentley may also have been a bit miffed when Dick Seaman - who did of course already have Lagonda connections - took the Duke of Kent on a high speed run round Donington Park in a V12 Lagonda before the GP. Sid Ivermee had been running at Brooklands at the same time as Howe, in an older 6-cylinder Lagonda, and had averaged 98 mph.
Alan Good then announced at Christmas that Lagonda would return to Le Mans in 1939 - the team to be managed by none other than WO Bentley! Seaman and Howe were originally announced as two of the drivers, but that was eventually vetoed by Mercedes Benz (although it seems Dick wasn't all that keen). Rolls Royce's response was to send the Embiricos Bentley to be extensively road tested on some of the fastest European motor roads of the day - and it was then enthusiastically written up in The Autocar. In February it was also used in a one-hour endurance run at Montlhéry; driven by the company's French agent Walter Sleator it managed 107.42mph. Amongst the few spectators was George Eyston, who had been approached by Rolls Royce with a view to him possibly running a Bentley team at Le Mans to oppose the Lagondas, although the short time scale would defeat him, just as it nearly did Lagonda - one of the cars they raced had never turned a wheel before it set off from the factory for the cross-Channel ferry and both were still being finished in the Le Mans paddock!
Meanwhile, Bugatti had got involved and in early June, Robert Benoist, in what was described as a stock T57C, averaged 113.46mph at Montlhéry in an hour. Not to be outdone, Eyston responded by taking the Embiricos to Brooklands the following month and upping the one hour figure to no less than 114.62mph, with one lap estimated at 120. Rolls Royce were sufficiently encouraged by this to lay preliminary plans for a team of similar sports saloons to run at La Sarthe in 1940 ...
