From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Performance comparison of the Continental Phantom against competing cars and a discussion on its body design.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\R\2December1927-February1928\ Scan196 | |
| Date | 2nd February 1928 guessed | |
| contd :- -3- half a mile to attain speed before commencing the timed stretch. The three Vauxhalls did the half mile at 81.8, 78.2 and 75.6 m.p.h. respectively. Mr. Summers on 117-MC a standard Phantom with a normal clean outlined open touring body with conventional wings did 75.0 m.p.h. A closed Hispano did 69.8 m.ph. It will therefore be seen that if the Continental Phantom had been present it would possibly have made the best time while none of the other cars could have approached its 4 m.p.h. top gear performance. Therefore, while we know we can improve the speed capabilities of the Continental Phantom, we do believe that as it stands at present it has a magnificent all-round performance, little if any inferior to the speciality of any other car sold. We are very tired of hearing that other cars can do 100 m.p.h. easily when we know it is not true. We interrogated Jack Barclay who is the Bentley Agent and who does an enormous amount of racing on Brooklands as to what speed he thought the 4½ litre Bentley as sold in normal touring trim could average over a lap at Brooklands, his reply was - "about 80 m.p.h :". We hope to have an opportunity of trying one of these cars before long, but we believe his statement to be about correct. If a customer must see 100 m.p.h. on the speedometer before being satisfied, the best people to consult are the instrument makers. With reference to the Continental Phantom body as at present designed - exception has been taken to the tail as being unnecessary and unsightly and endeavours are being made to get away from this design. Whilst the customer must be left to decide whether he likes a tail or not, its evolution was contd:- | ||