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).
Letter to Cadillac in Detroit discussing vehicle handling, requesting specifications for a Buick, and information on valve spring steel for comparison.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img181 | |
| Date | 19th April 1934 | |
| Exptl. Dept. HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}19/KW. 19th April, 1934. M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} Olley, Esq., The Cadillac Motor Co. Co., Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Dear Olley, I have now had three weeks of detuning in Derby but am still full of good intentions. Our people here have tried the Plymouth and the Pontiac and have criticised both for rolling on corners. I have therefore cabled you to-day to ask you to do what you can to prevent the Cadillac rolling too much because that is what they will criticise. About the little Buick, I should be awfully grateful if you could let me have a specification of this as soon as it is available and also the price, because I think the firm will buy one and if they won't I shall certainly have it for my own car when it arrives. You did say that you would book me one in any case, and I do hope that you have managed to do this so that we shall get one of the first. I presume they will make a 4-door Saloon rather on the lines of the La{L. A. Archer} Salle. We have got about 100 Bentleys on the road in the hands of customers, and no-one has yet broken a valve spring; I therefore give the American weather full marks. I would however be very grateful if you would give me the specification of the valve spring steel that you use, and as a matter of interest a typical stress range curve of one of your valve springs, so that I can see how the practices of England and America differ in this respect. | ||