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).
Tests conducted on the brakes of a 'Buick' car, model X.3317.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 26\4\ Scan071 | |
| Date | 9th May 1919 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from EH. c. to CJ. c. to Bn.{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington} c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} X3409 EHL/LG9.5.19. RE TESTS ON "BUICK" CAR BRAKES X.3317. Attached herewith is blue-print which shews the arrangement of mechanism for the brakes. Both hand and foot brakes work on single drums, bolted to each rear wheel. Both brakes are lined with raybestos. There is no attempt to compensate either the foot brake or the hand brake and one can notice that frequently the brake on one side wheel is doing most of the work. Under normal conditions the brakes are very powerful, in fact, the complaint against them is that the wheels can be locked with comparatively little effort on the part of the driver. We have noticed that if when driving in the wet weather, water gets on to the brakes, the foot brake is practically useless, this means that the brake is very treacherous. We have carried out tests on the dynamometer with these brakes. We ran the car on the direct drive. The engine revs, were kept at 1000 which equals 25 M.P.H. The throttle was adjusted so that the engine was developing 12 HP shewn on the dynamometer arm. We then released the dynamometer brake altogether and held the car by its own brakes. We first tried the hand brake which is the internal one. We ran this brake for 15 mins. absorbing 12 HP. After 8 minutes running the brake drum was red hot and remained so for the rest of the test. At the finish Contd. | ||