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).
The 25-EX car, discussing its ride, price, and performance in comparison to other models.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\3\ 03-page295 | |
| Date | 14th November 1930 guessed | |
| - 2 - 25-EX car does not ride badly according to our standards. I am sure it is quite as good as the average car. I am not convinced yet that Springfield can show me a car of the same type which rides any better. They claim that they can. The position is that they are to produce such a car for me to try. The road conditions out here are no different to what we have except that distances being so much greater, the roads which give a thoroughly bad ride sometimes last for hours. My complaint of the riding is not so much this particular car, but of the difference in the comfort of the rear seats and the drivers' seats. I consider the reason the riding comfort is strived for over here is because it is the one out-standing advantage they claim when trying to persuade a customer to purchase a Rolls Royce car. The price of 25-EX delivered to a customer here would be $4400. This is more than twice the price he would pay for a sixteen cylinder Cadillac with similar coachworks. Practically the only reason they can convince a man to pay the price for our car is that he will get a better ride than on any other car. On the question of performance, reliability, etc. we can not claim to have any out-standing advantage. The customer, therefore expects to get the increased comfort he has been promised. There are, however, still a large number of people who are willing to pay the price. Since I arrived they have sold twelve Phantom I cars and one imported Phantom II. This is much better than they have been doing. I find that they are working on the springing problem here on similar lines to what we are doing at Derby. That is, they are increasing the deflection of the springs. They have Phantom I cars running which have ten inch initial deflection. The fact that Springfield produce their own road springs makes it comparatively easy for them to make changes and experiments on road springs. There is one other point which has been criticised and that is the acceleration of the car. This is not raised as a serious objection, but some people hold the view that the acceleration is not as good as the Phantom I they are now producing. My own view is that we shall find they are about the same. It may be that they are slightly better. I believe they are using a higher compression ratio than we are, and also slightly lower gear ratio. We, however, are going to make comparative tests on the road. (Continued) | ||