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).
Car performance, including steering, acceleration, and specific mechanical faults discovered during road testing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\1\ Scan410 | |
| Date | 24th April 1936 | |
| To: "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}". Page 2. PARIS Sr23/Dn/24.4.36 Whether it is the total weight of the car that makes the steering on this car so amazingly good, or not, I cannot tell, but every customer, including ladies, who have taken the wheel, is under the impression that we have vastly improved the steering on the 4.1/4 L. I thought you would like to know this. The steering on my car is absolutely positive, and remarkably free from any reactions; in fact, there is little or no whip on the column at all. This latter point is probably due to lack of excessive weight. Personally, I am going all out at the present time to get our customers to go back to the Weymann type of body, and both Mr Lang and the Marquess of Cholmondeley agree with me on this subject. The result is that they will be ordering bodies from Vanvooren on the Weymann principle. My personal opinion of B-8-GA is that it is too fast on acceleration for the average person, and unless you keep your weather eye open, you come into the bends too fast, etc., etc. We can obtain 4,500 revs fairly easily, but I do not think that the peak speed of these cars can be obtained as easily as I should have imagined. On the road between Cannes and Nice I was able to get 4,500 revs on the straight, which is really a splendid performance owing to the number of motor cars to be found on this road. Incidentally, I do not think much of the figures given in the "Autocar", and am confident that when I get my car back on the road again, I shall improve on all these figures. As for their braking statistics, viz., 36 feet at 30 m.p.h. these seem to be worse, or almost, than those of any other car on the market? Now for "snags". 1º The first thing I noticed when I took over this car (B-8-GA) was the very disagreeable jagger that went on throughout the transmission. This, however, can probably be explained by two reasons, apart from the clutch which is probably the main factor: (a) The bolts holding the bevel drive into the axle, were so completely loose that they could be taken out with one's fingers. This is also probably the reason why my axle gears picked up. (b) Excessive end play in the third motion shaft. When I get my car back on the road, I shall let you know whether, after putting these two matters right, there is any improvement, which, I think, there is bound to be. 2º The slow-running is not as good as it should be, and | ||