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).
Private memo seeking advice on car modifications for the Le Mans race, focusing on fuel capacity, engine compression regulations, and brakes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90a\4\ Scan035 | |
| Date | 12th March 1936 | |
| x262 To Sr. from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}11/KW.12.3.36. Private & Personal. Dear Sr., Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} has now agreed that we shall run at Le Mans. We are therefore "sitting up and taking notice"! We consider that you know more about the race than anyone and ought to be able to help us a great deal, so that we hope you will give the matter a little of your time. I should like to ask the following questions :- (1) Fuel to be carried. We cannot get anything bigger than a 32-gallon petrol tank on the car in the standard position. This will give us a range of just over 300 miles. If we could put another tank in behind the driving seat it would of course shove our range up another 150 miles without upsetting the controllability of the car. I do not know how flexible the Le Mans regulations are with regard to this point, and should be glad to have your views. If you say that a range of 300 miles is not enough, and that we are not allowed to have a tank anywhere but in the standard position, we shall have to have another go at it. (2) The Regulations are actually stricter than last year's T.T. regulations with regard to raising the compression etc. of the engine. Actually we know that Bertelli of Aston Martin's, for instance, says that he makes far more modifications to the car for Le Mans than the T.T.. We presume that nobody could possibly take exception to our running a cylinder head at Le Mans which would be similar to the one that ran in last year's T.T. ? (3) The brakes are another point on which we should like your views. | ||