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).
Comparing the Bensport car's performance against a Ford, discussing the suitability of the J.1 engine, and outlining future engine development work.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179b\2\ img067 | |
| Date | 8th November 1932 | |
| -2- Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}1/W.H.8.11.32. Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} The nearest approach in performance to the Bensport is the new 8 cyl. Ford. The engine of this car is the same capacity as J.1 i.e. 3600 cc's. The weight of the complete car with the two-seater coupe and all accessories is approx. 22 cwt. We of course cannot hope to approach this weight. Altho' they only obtain a moderate horse-power from the engine the power weight ratio is very good and the performance of the car on the road for acceleration is much better than any of our present models. The car generally is also silent and smooth. This car has an infinitely better performance than any of the so called sports cars and they are becoming increasingly popular in spite of the £30 tax. The J.1 engine is the best engine we know of at the moment for fitting to this car. It has taken us a long time to fully appreciate its advantages but it is more efficient than either Peregrine or J.111. This unit gives us our optimum performance and at the same time we know it will run at high speeds continuously without giving any trouble, and is absolutely reliable. We have a certain amount of work to do to bring Peregrine and J.111 up to J.1 standard. We are at the present time trying out Peregrine with the turbulent type combustion chamber similar to that used on J.1. We quite expect there will be development in the engine for Bensport the same as we have always had but we are perfectly confident that we are making the best car in starting the Bensport off with J.1 type engine. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||