Phantom III tyre noise issues, design finalisation, and performance comparisons.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 157\1\ scan0314 | |
| Date | 20th April 1936 | |
| X1332 To Sg. {Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} From Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to Wor. {Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to E. {Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} 1/MJ.2 0.4.36. PHANTOM III. TYRE NOISES, ETC. The car we are sending to London today is the same car as you tried with Ox and complained of. It has now rubber shackles, rubber between the axle and springs, and it has always had rubber between the body and chassis. The car over sets is still very objectionable if you go at the right speed (30 to 32 m.p.h.). The introduction of the rubber has not made the improvement anticipated on this car. I still maintain, however, that this is a delightful car and will satisfy 90% of customers, but we shall never make the motor-car which professional critics will not complain of. We have got to the stage on Phantom III when the design must be accepted and cars delivered to customers. If we go back over our car history, this decision has always had to be made. In the case of Phantom I Cg. laid it down that the car was going to be delivered to customers and he accepted that 10% of the chassis might have to be changed afterwards. In the case of Phantom II it was R. {Sir Henry Royce} who insisted that production should go ahead and cars delivered in spite of all the criticisms at that time. In the case of the Bentley, the first cars which were submitted as production models were severely criticised and although no alterations were made, when the car had got into customers hands it gave more complete satisfaction than any other model. My opinion is that the original programme agreed to for Phantom III was right. That is, the first car should be delivered with rubber between the body and the frame and any additional rubber will be fitted after it has been proved satisfactory. I consider that riding over sets should be treated as an exceptional condition. On the average car the running over sets will not represent .05% of the car's mileage. In Derby the sets are so rapidly disappearing that in a few week's time we shall have to go to Nottingham for carrying out tests, which is going to be very inconvenient. Nottingham is also adopting trolley cars and they are rapidly covering their sets with Macadam. Any car will always be bad over sets - Cadillac is bad, the latest Buick is worse than the old one, 36-Ex. which we are sending to you with all its rubber is worse than the 10,000 miles car 32-Ex. with only rubber between the chassis and body. | ||
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).