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).
Declining sales of open touring cars and the viability of producing a special speed model.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 4\8\ 08-page24 | |
| Date | 12th November 1926 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from BJ. Out of every 100 cars we sold five years ago, 28 were open touring cars/, whereas out of every 100 cars we sold during the last financial year only 15 were open touring cars. It is problematical as to how many of this 15% would require speed models but we think a small proportion, and even if it were 4 per hundred, this would mean a total of less than 20 per annum. The real reason for the reduction in open car sales is the ever increasing demand for closed bodies of the owner driven type. This does not appear to justify a special light chassis which is likely to require any extra designing or manufacturing away from our ordinary standard. Anything going through the Works away from standard interferes with output and does not pay us. Every year the speed merchant is dying out and the very few enthusiasts who exist usually take up a lot of the valuable time of our officials in talking both before and after the sale and generally become a nuisance as all amateur engineering enthusiasts are apt to be. If we produce a special speed model and in any way set up a record of speed, the other manufacturers, such as the Hispano, would go out of their way to beat it the next day, and we do not think it will help us specially to pursue the few speed merchants by this means. On the other hand, we have always said that it might be to our advantage for Mr.Nutt* to produce a special type of light, touring body with the minimum amount of wind resistance, to place on our standard chassis for those who are looking for a greater speed than we can give with our ordinary touring car, namely, approximately 80 miles per hour. If we can help him in this without wasting much of our time it might be worth while. We shall, I hope, be able to sell some cars of this type to the special speed merchants. There is another aspect in connection with producing a speed model, namely, that it is inclined to take our experts such as the Experimental staff, on the road in touring cars when every * Mr Nutt - Barkers chief designer | ||