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).
Report comparing the performance of a supercharged Lagonda, the 16-34 model, the Phantom II, and American cars.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179\2\ img174 | |
| Date | 21th January 1932 | |
| -2- Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}8/MJ.21.1.32. Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} The supercharged Lagonda satisfied us that it was possible to fit a covered body to a supercharged car and still obtain reasonable silence. Actually the performance of this supercharged car with the covered body was not very interesting. This is not surprising because the weight of the car came out to over 30 cwts. The horse-power of the engine was about 70. To get any thrill at all out of the sports cars it is necessary to make continual use of the gears. As none of these cars have easy change gears it means that the driver has to have considerable skill to be able to get the necessary performance and thrill out of one of these cars. In the case of 16-34, this car gives a maximum BHP. of 115. The complete car weighs 31 cwts. so that actually the power weight ratio is better than supercharged cars, and also the fact that we can have synchro-mesh gearbox makes it so that the average driver can obtain a remarkable performance. We do not claim that when we run our 25 HP. engine up to 4000 RPM. instead of approximately 3000 as at present we still retain the same degree of silence, but we say compared with other sports cars we are exceptionally good, and when the car is cruising at 3000 R.P.M. it is just as smooth and quiet as the standard car. Although 16-34 car gives approximately the same performance as the Phantom ll, it does not do it in the same way. There is always more luxury of travel in the big car than the smaller one. With our latest Continental Phantom one can cruise at 70 M.P.H. without the engine being obtrusive at all. We cannot claim this for the 25 HP., and never expect to. We must expect when we make a range of cars, that the performance up to normal average speeds will be approximately the same. We know from actual tests that the American Ford has a much better performance up to 50 or 60 M.P.H. than Phantom ll. Most american cars, whatever the size, have practically the same acceleration from 10 to 40 M.P.H. The fact that a man cannot afford to pay a high price should not necessarily prevent him from having the same performance as on the big car, but he definitely will not have the same luxury as on the big car. With the slightly modified J.l head we can now drop this head on to an existing 'chima' engine using the same connecting rods and pistons so that the modification from the standard car is comparatively small. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||