Car testing from France, detailing issues with steering, suspension, a telegauge, and brakes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\2\ 02-page212 | |
| Date | 24th April 1929 | |
| TO Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} and RM {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} From G.W.H. 47741 Hotel de France Chateauroux(French test region) Indre 60 24/4/29 We have received your wire " PLEASE CONCENTRATE ON TESTS RATHER THAN MILAGE". We do not understand the reason why this has been sent. We have run only one full day for three weeks the full milage and that was last Sunday, the reason being that new tyres were fitted all round and I wanted to make sure of these before carrying on with steering tests. We have been working on Expt., work every afternoon verifying results during the mornings run. We have as far as I am aware carried out the various tests asked for with the exception of the side steering tube. This has had to be cut in three pieces to make it come in and we have not as yet got it back from the garage, please remember that we have not got the Expt Dept. to go at and only two men at a time to change parts ever. I wanted Hill here but for some reason unexplained he was not sent over. We have had to pack the front buffers .375" to prevent the shock dampers fouling the cross steering tube this gives us 1.00" buffer clearance the total lengh of the buffer being approximatly 2.250". We reduced the loading of the rear dampers to 75 lbs H & LP {Mr Lappin} because we are afraid of them breaking, the o {Mr Oldham} /s as we have reported has developed slack in the linkage. It is not on the shaft. The front of the car does not jelly and rides very well. We are experimenting further with pivot lean and increased upward poundage of the front dampers. The Telegauge is operating but not reading correctly the amount in the tank. We set the liquid at zero but it is two gallons short when the tank is full, it reads correctly otherwise and no faults have appeared so far. The braking of the car with the lubricated cotton duck serve is very good. We sturated it well once, the braking immediatly afterwards required a little too much pressure for final pulling up but after a days run this fault had disappeared. The braking of the car is now ideal but for the squeaks which are very bad on the rear. These can be stopped by lightly putting the hand brake on at the same time which means we are damping them out. The damping plates on the drums do not look large enough to do any good. G.W.H. | ||
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).