The Rolls-Royce 10 hp is a car from Rolls-Royce, built from 1904 to 1906, when a car was a rich man's adventure and every maker was a workshop. Under the bonnet: 1800 cc, later 1995 . Sir Henry Royce drew it.
The story
The Rolls-Royce 10 hp was the first car to be produced as a result of an agreement of 23 December 1904 between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, and badged as a Rolls-Royce. The 10 hp was produced by Royce's company, Royce Ltd., at its factory in Cooke Street, Hulme, Manchester, and was sold exclusively by Rolls' motor dealership, C.S.Rolls & Co., at a price of £395. The 10 hp was exhibited at the Paris Salon in December 1904, along with 15 hp and 20 hp cars and engine for the 30 hp models. The 10 hp was a development of Henry Royce's first car, the Royce 10, of which he produced three prototypes in 1903. This was itself based on a second-hand Decauville owned by Royce which he correctly believed he could improve. In particular, Royce succeeded in making his car significantly quieter than existing cars. Unlike the Royce 10 which had a flat-topped radiator, the Rolls-Royce 10 hp featured one with a triangular top which would appear on all subsequent cars.
The engine is a water-cooled twin-cylinder of 1800 cc enlarged to 1995 cc on later cars, with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves, and based on the original Royce engine but with an improved crankshaft. The power output was 12 hp (9 kW) at 1000 rpm. The car has a top speed of 39 mph (63 km/h). There is a transmission brake fitted behind the gearbox operated by foot pedal and internal expanding drum brakes on the back axle operated by the handbrake lever. Springing is by semi-elliptic leaf springs on both front and rear axles. It is a small car with a wheelbase of 75 in (1,905 mm) and a track of 48 in (1,219 mm). Rolls-Royce
What is underneath
Power comes from 1800 cc, later 1995 . It shifts through a three-speed. The wheelbase is 1905 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Fiat 60 HP, the Packard Model 30, the Oldsmobile Model S — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Rolls-Royce catalogue sit the Rolls-Royce 100EX and the Rolls-Royce 102EX.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Rolls-Royce 10 hp has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.