Practice of using gears instead of front-wheel brakes for descending hills.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 6\2\ 02-page027 | |
| Date | 7th December 1937 | |
| s/w {Sales / Derby Works} x523 [REDACTED] Copy to [REDACTED] PHA/H.7.12.37. FRANKENSTEIN ON CARS. I note in your H2/M1.1.27 you suggest that with our cars, owing to the effectiveness of front wheel brakes, no one thinks of getting on gears to descend a hill. I would like to point out that my usual practice, and one which I think is best in these days when ascending and descending mountain passes of any severity, is to drop on to third gear. This not only enables cooling to be adequate without worry in the Summer but gives an excellent amount of pep for climbing hairpin corners without gear changing, whilst when going down hill an occasional touch of the foot brake only will be required, and consequently in mountainous country the wear and tear is reduced to a minimum. This method is, of course, only feasible nowadays because of the excellent gears from the point of view of sound. FH. | ||
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).