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).
The test drive and evaluation of a supercharged Alfa Romeo 8 Cylinder 2 Litre sports car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 3\4\ 04-page331 | |
| Date | 16th June 1935 | |
| To Mr. Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} c. to Mr. Nor. c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to Ry. c. to Ta. c. to Wby. Re. Alfa Romeo. In our search to find what other makers are producing in the way of sports cars we took advantage of a recent visit to the Bristol Engine Co. to try Mr. Fedden's 8 Cylinder 2 Litre supercharged Alfa Romeo. The Alfa Romeo Company in Italy are licensees and are producing Jupiter engines in Italy. Mr. Fedden frequently visits there and his car is kept in good condition and modernised frequently. The car was fitted with a small open four-seater body. I drove the car for about 50 miles. In the first place the car is terribly noisy. The gears driving the blower make more noise than we could ever tolerate. The gearbox gears are very much worse than we have ever had on any of our cars. The performance on the road is disappointing. I am certain that we can put up a better performance with the 3½ Litre Bentley. The maximum top speed which Mr. Fedden had had on the road (this was between Winchester and Basingstoke, where there are long downhill stretches) is 97 M.P.H.. We should expect our open Bentley car on the same road would only be two or three m.p.h. lower. Although they have very large brake drums the brakes do not compare with those on our 3½ Litre. The steering and springing were good without having any outstanding merit. The weight of the complete car is 23 cwt. with a maximum horse-power from the engine of 136, compared with our 130. The 8 Cyl. Alfa Romeo represents the best car that is made in this class. It is an expensive car, the chassis price in Italy is £1,100. The Alfa Romeo people only produce 40 of these cars per year. They make about 500 per year of an un-supercharged model which they sell at a much lower price. I am convinced that we shall have very little difficulty in demonstrating that our 3½ Litre car is actually | ||