Solvolysis rate constants for a number of tertiary benzylic p-nitrobenzoate esters in a wide range of solvents were measured. New scales of solvent ionizing power for Gnunwald-Winstein-type correlation analyses, Y-BnOPNB from 2-phenyl-2-adamantyl p-nitrobenzoate and Y-xBnOPNB from 2-(6-methoxy-2-naphthyl)-2-adamantyl p-nitrobenzoate, were developed for the mechanistic study of solvent effects on the solvolytic reactivity of benzylic p-nitrobenzoates. The excellent linear log k-(YBnOPNB) plot for 2-(4-methylphenyl)-2-propyl p-nitrobenzoate indicated a limiting S(N)1 mechanism. The solvolytic transition state for 9-phenyl-9-fluorenyl p-nitrobenzoate and that for 1,1-diphenylethyl p-nitrobenzoate were considered to involve extended positive charge delocalizations from the observation of linear relationships between log k and Y-xBnOPNB. The ambiguity in the case of 2, 2-djmethyl-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-1-propyl p-nitrobenzoate is discussed. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.