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).
Motoring letter detailing the impressive speed and fuel consumption of a Bentley during road tests in France and Germany.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\3\ scan0205 | |
| Date | 16th February 1939 guessed | |
| 2. MOTORING LETTER. What a splendid thing for British tourists with their luggage! What a pleasure the British driver of such a car would have! Until recently one would have scoffed at this very idea. It would have seemed all too good to be true. Yet, thanks to Rolls-Royce, this is now a reality. A Bently, an ordinary Bentley, owned by one of their customers and lent for trial purposes, recently achieved some remarkably high speeds and averages on the French roads and German autobahnen. While every care was taken to see that the car was in first class condition, there was nothing very special about it, if one excepts the new French streamline body, which can be fitted to any Bentley. If anyone wants a car similar to it they will shortly be able to do so, and for the very reasonable figure of about £1,750. It may sound a lot of money to the man who just buys a car in which to get about, but it is distinctly cheap for the connoisseur who wants something extra. Lorry Overtaken At 110 m.p.h. The first thing one gets from this 4¼ litre car is speed. This car in France, on roads not specially picked out but in the course of a run to the frontier, did Paris to Metz without undue hurry in three hours, an average of sixty miles an hour. When the driver, not a special racing driver but a director of the French branch of Rolls-Royce, wanted to speed up a little he covered 38 miles between Montmireil and Chalons in just 30 minutes, to average 76 miles an hour. The speedometer, which had been duly checked, showed 115 m.p.h. as a top speed and a lorry coming in the opposite direction was passed at 110 m.p.h. In Germany, as would be expected with the new autobahn much more impressive performances were accomplished. Almost 117 m.p.h. was averaged for five minutes and over 100 m.p.h. was averaged for fifteen minutes. A top speed of 120 m.p.h. was reached - and held. On an ordinary right-handed curve without banking another car was passed at 115 m.p.h. It was small wonder that even the Germans, used to seeing monster Mercedes speed by, turned round in amazement, wondering what manner of car this was. Wherever it stopped at petrol stations everyone rushed to see it and to find out what the new marvel was. The mention of petrol stations brings us to the second great quality possessed by this car, and that is the extraordinarily low petrol consumption. Because the wish was that the car should as far as possible be standard, the petrol used for the high speeds just mentioned, and for the consumption tests, was ordinary fuel taken at random from the most convenient petrol pumps. Tested with one gallon of ordinary German petrol in the tank of this car just over 21 miles were covered with the speedometer finger never allowed to drop below 80 m.p.h. By dropping the average to 60 m.p.h., which is a high enough average for most people for long distances, it was found possible to get 26 miles to the gallon - a figure which would please most owners of very ordinary saloon cars. Thus travelling at high speed in these cars is not going to cost a lot of money, as has previously been the case with high speed Continental cars. | ||