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).
Importance of testing cars for the majority of customers who use closed bodies, rather than focusing on speed enthusiasts.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 4\8\ 08-page13 | |
| Date | 4th June 1926 | |
| [Handwritten at top: Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} X469] To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from BJ. c. to WDF. [Top right corner: BJG/D4.6.26. C] We have always been rather afraid that because about half-a-dozen of our customers are amateur enthusiasts, and therefore, spend a good deal of their personal time in seeing our officials at Derby and here, and because these enthusiasts are nearly always speed merchants, we might be inclined to give too much consideration to the requirements of the speed merchant, to the detriment of all our other customers. The speed merchants may represent even 5% of our customers, but 99% of our customers are ordinary motor-users, and it is in them that we are really interested. I am mentioning this in order that we may all bear in mind that if an alteration in the design of our chassis seems desirable, to make it more suitable for the gentleman who wants to drive at 80 miles per hour, we must always very carefully consider whether it will in any way make the chassis more unsuitable for all the rest of our customers, and our tests should always be made with a view to considering the 99%. About 90% of our customers use closed bodies. It was decided that our tests should always be made with closed bodies. Modifications which may prove entirely satisfactory at 80 miles per hour with an open body, presumably might prove far less satisfactory at 80 miles per hour with a closed body. The above arises from the fact that the two tests made this week in France were both made with open bodies, - one of them with a short chassis. There probably was some special reason for this which I do not understand at present, but I presume it was not intended to be a test to arrive at any conclusion as to the behaviour of cars as used by practically all our customers, but only to ascertain how a very light car would behave at very high speeds on very rough roads. I am not suggesting that such a test was unnecessary, but why further tests are necessary with closed cars. B.J. | ||