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).
Arguing against reducing the cylinder size of the new 25 HP 'Japan' car due to minimal performance gains.
| Identifier | Morton\M13.2\ img072 | |
| Date | 1st July 1931 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} C. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} C. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} C. Ey. ORIGINAL Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}3/AML1.7.31. [Handwritten]: X5770. X3993. JAPAN 3. - 25 HP. Personally, I feel it is a mistake to reduce the cylinder size of the new 25 HP. car. With an improved performance one would anticipate that our biggest production would be this size of car. Therefore, it hardly seems right to allow the big car, which it is anticipated will only have a small market, to influence the design. A whole lot of design work has been done on our 25 HP. but very little of it has got on to the production car. The production car has been kept alive by "hand to mouth" modifications and it would appear that it has still got to maintain its place for some time by similar modifications. We consider the chief reason why the "Japan" type 25 HP. never got through to production was because the performance was so very little better than the present standard car and we feel there is the same risk with the new design of 25 HP. unless the performance is definitely improved. The proposed dimensions which consist of 1/2" longer stroke on the present car, we anticipate will give us very little increase in maximum speed. We should anticipate that the performance of the new car will be no better than 18-G4, the green limousine which we had at Brooklands recently. You will remember that Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} and Fn. were rather disappointed with the improvement of performance compared with the standard car. In the meantime we shall be improving the performance of the standard car so that when the new one comes along there will be even less difference. The fact that we alter the mechanical details of the car does not influence the buyer, they expect a Rolls-Royce car to be reliable. In a new car we have either got to show them increased performance, better comfort, or more silence. There is no reason why the new car should have any more comfort or any more silence, so it ought to have a better performance to make it attractive. My reason for putting these views forward is, as previously stated, because a lot of design and experimental work has been done on the 25 HP. with very little result, which is disappointing to all concerned. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||