Rolls-Royce Archives
         « Prev  Box Series  Next »        

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).
Performance comparison of the Continental Phantom against competitors and a discussion on its design.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 29\3\  Scan184
Date  23th February 1928 guessed
  
contd :- -3-

half a mile to attain speed before commencing the timed stretch.
The three Vauxhalls did the half mile at 81.8, 78.2 and 75.6 m.p.h.
respectively., Mr. Summers on 117-MC a standard Phantom with a
normal clean outlined open touring body with conventional wings
did 75.0 m.p.h. A closed Hispano did 69.8 m.p.h. It will there-
fore be seen that if the Continental Phantom had been present it
would possibly have made the best time while none of the other
cars could have approached its 4 m.p.h. top gear performance.
Therefore, while we know we can improve the speed
capabilities of the Continental Phantom, we do believe that as it
stands at present it has a magnificent all-round performance,
little if any inferior to the speciality of any other car sold.
We are very tired of hearing that other cars can
do 100 m.p.h. easily when we know it is not true. We interrogated
Jack Barclay who is the Bentley Agent and who does an enormous
amount of racing on Brooklands as to what speed he thought the
4½ litre Bentley as sold in normal touring trim could average over
a lap at Brooklands, his reply was - "about 80 m.p.h .". We hope
to have an opportunity of trying one of these cars before long,
but we believe his statement to be about correct.
If a customer must see 100 m.p.h. on the speedo-
meter before being satisfied, the best people to consult are the
Instrument makers.
With reference to the Continental Phantom body as
at present designed - exception has been taken to the tail as
being unnecessary and unsightly and endeavours are being made to
get away from this design. Whilst the customer must be left to
decide whether he likes a tail or not, its evolution was contd:-
  
  


Copyright Sustain 2025, All Rights Reserved.    whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble
An unhandled error has occurred. Reload 🗙