Unlike many of the concept cars we see at auto shows that are dummied up with clay, smoke and mirrors, Rolls Royce has always pursued an entirely different philosophy, building fully functioning "experimental vehicles."
Each such car has been meticulously hand-built to investigate how a potential production model will operate in real world conditions since 1919, when the first such vehicle (1EX) was constructed, predating the 1938 Buick Y-Job (often claimed to be the world's first concept car) by almost two decades.
The "Torpedo" styled 10EX was built in 1926 as a sports car version of the Phantom 1 and after many modifications, lapped Brooklands at an average speed of 91.2 mph. Most importantly, it stayed in the company as a staff car and occasional celebrity courtesy car for six years, being driven by many people of note, such as Lawrence of Arabia who once borrowed it for a European trip.
It was commissioned by Rolls-Royce MD, D. Claude Johnson, and the aim was to produce a fast sports car by using a lightweight aerodynamic body. 10EX was built in late 1925. Writing about the development of the 10EX, Henry Royce explained, "The object of preparing this chassis is that, if speed merchants in the form of English peers or Indian Rajahs or others doubt the capacity of the Rolls-Royce Phantom I, this specimen, which we should be able to repeat, can be tried by them… We have no thought of making a freak machine or to depart from the smooth and silent model, but we do think that the owners of the smooth and silent models within their large bodies capable of 80 mph will be pleased to know that the same chassis and engine when fitted to a touring car will be capable of 95-100 mph."
The car was eventually capable of around 95 mph, but only after several sets of extensive modifications, the first of which was a major revamp by Barker in December 1926. After extensive refinement, the car's lap speed at the high speed Brooklands circuit was incrementally pushed from 79.2 mph, to 86.54 mph and eventually to an average lap speed of 91.2 mph – considering that's an average speed, and this was 85 years ago, 10EX was certainly no slouch.
It should also be noted that this car pre-dates the car commonly referred to as the world's first concept car, Harley Earl's Buick Y-Job, by a full 13 years. The 1938 Y-Job was a fully-functioning "experimental vehicle" according to a Buick press release issued at the time, so this vehicle is unquestionably one of the earliest known concept cars in automotive history, preceded by just nine other Rolls-Royce experimental vehicles.
Logically, the 10EX has to be at least the equivalent of 17EX in terms of value - and it was driven by Lawrence of Arabia no less.
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