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).
Typed account of various early driving incidents, including running over turkeys, dusty roads, and tyre troubles.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0360 | |
| Date | 28th October 1941 guessed | |
| - 5 - with the local gendarme. The matter was satisfactorily "settled out of court" - no money changing hands! (Insert copy of letter) Another catastrophic accident occurred when one of our drivers ran over ten turkeys at once. The mortality would have been reduced had not the turkeys been walking in line along the edge of the road, which was not sufficiently wide to admit the passing of two vehicles. Had the Continental Test Section had all its victims stuffed and put in a museum, the result would have provided an astonishing spectacle. Not the least of the problems in the early days was that of dust. It is no exaggeration to say that, in the summer, on certain roads, a cloud of dust half a mile behind the car was so thick as to obscure completely visibility . The French cyclists, who abounded then as now, showed little appreciation of our activities, and we had to be careful not to use the same road too often. The level-crossing keepers soon came to know us and, in common with all other employees of the French Railways, showed a distinctly sporting instinct. They were always ready to appraise the speed of the approaching train and, if the odds were at all reasonable, took a chance that we would cross the line before the locomotive passed between the gates. The fact that we never hit a train testifies to their sound judgment. Round about 1925, wheels and tyres were very troublesome. The straight-sided rims which wer held on by being sprung on to the wheel, used to come off at maximum speed, whereupon the tyre left the rim and the first indication of trouble which the driver had was that the car became somewhat uncontrollable. | ||