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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 discussing corrections to a propellor shaft drawing and arranging a comparative car test drive.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 160\5\  scan0111
Date  4th January 1941
  
Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}8/ET.

4th January, 1941.

Geoffrey Smith Esq.,
Iliffe & Sons, Ltd.,
Dorset House,
Stamford Street,
L O N D O N S.E. 1.

Dear Mr. Geoffrey Smith,

Many thanks for your letter of 1st January and good wishes.

I am sorry to say that we have slipped up on the propellor shaft drawing which we sent you. The up to date version has a split propellor shaft, as on the chassis which you are sketching.

There is also a point in connection with the gearbox. The actual general arrangement drawing we sent you is of a box having a direct top. The same box can of course, with small modifications, be converted to an overdrive top and direct third speed, but we did not have a general arrangement drawing of this particular set-up. Possibly you will like to mention this fact in your script.

I was interested in your remarks on the B.V. suspension. I have never driven the car you have been testing, as it was never submitted to us owing to the outbreak of hostilities. I think, however, that it must be reasonably representative of the type.

Mr. Lappin, who is our Liaison between the Air Ministry and Derby, is driving a production car which we have checked up in the Experimental Department, and I will get him to contact you and let you have a run on it. If you possibly can take it over a typical English main road, and then get straight out of it into a Bentley 2, I would like to have your reactions from such a direct comparison.

Yours sincerely,
  
  


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