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).
Car performance, detailing a journey to Lyons, high petrol consumption, and a comparison with competitor vehicles.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\5\ scan0122 | |
| Date | 18th March 1939 guessed | |
| -2- returns from Switzerland I intend to take the passengers seat. That one should go to Lyons and back in the morning by starting off early, does not surprise me in the least with a car having a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour, the present road conditions which as you know are bad one should go to Lyons in 4 hours 32 minutes and back in 4 hours 28 minutes is something I will have to see to believe. Mr. Faroux states that although the car has lots of faults it is the most extraordinary car he has ever driven and adds that there seems to be no limit to its cornering propencities, road holding qualities, etc. The petrol consumption is high for the horse-power which works out to 18 litres to 100 kilometres and the engine seems to shed oil all over the shop. Mr. Faroux is going to let me have his full report on the trip in question together with his criticisms but has naturally asked me not to make this public. He also says that when he was in Berlin at the Motor Show he saw a Streamlined 4/5 seater Horch car developping 115 h.p. with a guaranteed clock speed of 180 kms per hour. I told him how interested we would be to have photographs and drawings of this car and he has promised to let me have them. In conclusion, he still maintains that speed alone is nothing, as Delahaye have proved to the World. He says that controllability, road holding, silence, general finesse of a car are far more important and to use a very stricking argument he points out that if one takes a fast train in which it is possible to travel pullman, first class, second or third class the passengers get there at the same time but under different conditions. "St" | ||