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).
Letter to 'The Autocar' magazine discussing the performance of various sports cars, including Bentley and Bugatti models.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0051 | |
| Date | 5th December 1940 | |
| 5.12.40. The Editor, The Autocar, Dorset House, Stamford Street, LONDON.S.E.I. Dear Sir, The correspondence in your columns between Mr. Lycette and Mr. Hampton has been exceedingly interesting and it is with some regret we observe that it will now be discontinued. Whilst admiring Mr. Lycette's car, we do feel that it requires more than superlative acceleration to produce the ideal sports car, and that whereas the 3.3 Bugatti on many occasions won road races, we can find few records of 8-litre Bentley successes in similar events, even prior to 1930. Even at Shelsley-Walsh, an event where one might expect moderate road holding to be counterbalanced by an abnormal power weight ratio, the only record we can find shows that Mr. Lycette's Bentley has a best time of 50.44 seconds, whereas E.R.Hall, on a Bentley having a displacement of 3 1/2 litres only, put up a figure of 46-2/5ths seconds. In other words, we suggest that these big cars of yesterday cannot compare with smaller, modern, high quality sports cars for performance under modern traffic conditions from point to point. Yours faithfully, "TOURIST TROPHY". | ||