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).
Providing guidance on the content of daily reports for the 'Corniche' car, particularly regarding tyre testing and other engineering issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 98\5\ scan0038 | |
| Date | 1st August 1939 | |
| 4009 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/IMW.{Ivan M. Waller - Head of Chateauroux} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} France. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/R.1.8.39. 'CORNICHE' We have read with interest your reports on the handling of the car. We should like you to exercise your discretion in the statements you make in the Daily Reports. We return to you the Daily Report of the 29th July, which we should like you to modify. The position is that as a result of the running which was carried out on 8.B.V. we have standardised Avon tyres for the Bentley. This decision was not entirely popular with the Administration who have always supported Dunlops, and, in consequence, any remarks at the present juncture indicating that the Dunlop tyres are superior to Avons will lead to acrimonious arguments. We, therefore, particularly do not wish to draw comparisons with Dunlops and Avons tyres until we are certain of our results, and until we are certain that Avons have had an opportunity of examining the tyres which we say are not good enough and modifying them accordingly. We think it is quite unnecessary to alarm the Administration with regard to tyre life on Autostrads motoring on the 'Corniche' until we have concluded our tests and are able to summarise the results obtained. We should like you to continue to regard the Daily Reports as being information supplied for non-technical people. Generally speaking, we think it inadvisable to mention experiments in these reports until we are absolutely certain that we have the whole story from the results obtained, and that as a consequence of these the Engineering Dept. find it necessary to warn the Administration that trouble may be expected on the ultimate product. We think that you had better leave the whole question of the stability of the 'Corniche' in the Daily Reports alone until you have tried out all the various parts we are sending out. In the meantime, we should be glad if you would inform us of the progress made in your notes as at present. We are worried about the front damper valves sticking. We believe that we could improve them by cleaner production methods, but are not altogether happy about the design. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||