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).
Standardising cars with low compression and 14-tooth axles, balancing speed against vibration.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 19\7\ Scan062 | |
| Date | 25th July 1922 guessed | |
| contd: -2- to decide on a policy of standardising cars with low compression and 14-tooth axles, which we hope will give adequate life, speed, silence, absence of vibration. When PN.{Mr Northey} returned from the South of France, after thoroughly testing the 14-tooth axle, he impressed on us very forcibly that he was convinced that we need no longer consider customers who required more than about 60 m.p.h., as we there were only few of these and we might be misled by these few, who shout loudest, that motorists as a general rule require higher speeds than 60 m.p.h. The tests made by you to obtain information of the extra speed obtained by high compression over medium compression show that the high compression gives such a slight advantage, (and then only at speeds over 60 m.p.h.) that it is not worth considering, if the high compression is likely to increase the vibration on the average. B.J. | ||