Road trial report from the 1927 Motor Show comparing a 6-cylinder Bentley to a Phantom.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 21\2\ Scan042 | |
| Date | 24th October 1927 | |
| hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rn {Mr Robinson} 3/LG24.10.27. MOTOR SHOW - 1927. We have made the following road trials at the Show :- 6-CYL. BENTLEY. The car we tried weighed 2.25 tons, empty with a small fabric saloon body on it. It was impossible to sit three abreast in the rear seat with any degree of comfort. Five persons were carried during the run so that the total weight of the car was about 2.5 tons. The main features of the chassis appeared to be unaltered from the model we tried 18 months ago. With the exception of a Dewandre servo which has been added, coil ignition insteadof one of the magnetos, and the dynamo on the front end of the crankshaft of larger capacity. We could pick out a very faint crankshaft period at full throttle on top gear at 40-45 MPH. This should mean that the main crankshaft period would occur at 75-80 m.p.h. on top due to the low axle ratio when as far as we could ascertain the engine would be doing about 3200 r.p.m. We hope to be able to obtain an extended trial to verify this point in the immediate future. The acceleration and top gear performance of the car were good but not so impressive as one would expect with the power weight ratio available. We care-fully compared the performance with that of a std. open touring Phantom, with a 4.6 to 1 comp. ratio and 15 X 52 axle, the result was slightly in favour of the Phantom, which for the test with two passengers weighed approx. the same as the Bentley. The superiority of the Phantom was most marked up to 45 m.p.h. We can only think that the Bentley people have a camshaft that gives a good volumetric efficiency at high speeds contd :- | ||
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).