The Beginning of the End

A knight-errant of much more formidable appearance now entered the lists of controversy. The American company was bound by the terms of the agreement with Derby to produce a car identical to that produced in England. The introduction of the 20 h.p. Goshawk at Derby raised the problem of whether or not the Springfield factory was obliged to produce this model as well. It was finally decided that the car was unsuited to American conditions, and that its sales would be severely limited by the competition of several American vehicles which offered a similar performance and capacity at a lower price. It was estimated1 that the tooling costs alone for this model would have been in the region of $750,000 and the financial position did not permit an expenditure of this order to be considered. The constant modification and improvement of the Silver Ghost, which culminated in the introduction of the Phantom I series in 1926, presented an even more serious threat to the future of the Springfield company which would have had to close down if unable to finance retooling costs for the new chassis, estimated to have amounted to some $450,000, or $366 for each of the 1225 Phantom I chassis eventually built at Springfield.