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).
Travelogue detailing a cross-country car journey, focusing on mileage, road conditions, and vehicle reliability.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 47\2\ Scan142 | |
| Date | 6th September 1929 guessed | |
| -2- Upon leaving Los Angeles, I had put on a complete new set of tires. I arrived at Los Vegas, a distance of 301 miles, and had to make a complete change of four new tires. I continued on to Salt Lake and had to make another complete change of four more new tires, distance 455 miles, or eight tires completely used up in a distance of 756 miles. From Salt Lake, I continued on to Green River, Wyoming, arriving there in exactly twenty-four hours and five minutes after leaving Pasadena, a distance of 945 miles, which averaged 39-1/2 miles an hour and included the changing of eight tires and balancing wheels, on roads where a little better than 165 miles were made by compass and through desert. It was rather hard on the disks of the wheels, as some of the roads punched holes in them. The next morning, I ran up to Sheridan and spent a week at my sister's ranch. The climb from Sheridan to the ranch, which I made three or four times, is very hard, as it is really nothing more than a rock bed used by pack horses, and there are quite a few places where it is very hard to get across the bump. Most of the cars have to fill up with water at least three or four times in making this run, but I found it unnecessary to do so with my car. Leaving Sheridan on Wednesday for Chicago, Mrs. Donnelley had intended to take the Overland Limited but missed the train, which leaves Sheridan at twelve noon, so she decided to motor with me. We left Sheridan at exactly two o'clock, two hours after the train, but after going about fifty miles, she decided it was too hot and wanted to catch the train, which we easily did at Osage, a distance of 195 miles, where I put her aboard. I then continued on over a cowpath road through the Black Hills, as I had gone about 100 miles out of my way off the main road in order to catch the train, and came straight through into Chicago, arriving at Lake Forest at 9:55 Thursday night, a distance of 1,235 miles - elapsed time twenty-nine hours, fifty-five minutes, or an average speed of 40-1/2 miles an hour. I stopped at Waterloo to visit an old friend for an hour and a half, and then spent an hour by the lake at McHenry, Illinois, taking a rest. Mrs. Donnelley arrived in Chicago on the Overland Limited the following morning. Now a few words as to the performance of the car. I have not laid a wrench on the car since I started on the trip; in fact, I lost the keys to the tool box at Sheridan, and if I had had to change a tire, I would have had to go somewhere and gotten a coal chisel to open the box. The car has had five complete sets of rear tires on this trip and two complete sets of front tires. -continued- | ||