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).
Performance of the brakes and steering during a 450-mile road test on car 27.O.VI.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 6\6\ 06-page406 | |
| Date | 29th December 1937 | |
| To Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} From Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls} Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}2/AP.29.12.37 Re. RUN ON 27.O.VI. In connection with a run of about 450 miles on this car, two points seem to stand out a long way above the others. (1) The brakes are far and away better than anything we have had on an experimental car or on any car made by some other manufacturer. They are very free from sponge. Even when the car was driven exceedingly hard on a winding road, there was no noticeable fade, variation in pedal travel or alteration in front to rear brake ratio. It will be a great pity if only because Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} does not like aluminium drums we allow the Wraith braking to be spoilt. (2) The Ph.III. was the first car we produced with ball bearing pivots and is the first car we have produced which does not suffer from the usual Rolls-Royce trouble of wandering due to tight pivots. This complaint has been noticeable on several Ph.IIs., 20/25 and occasional Bentleys in our own Department but never to my knowledge on a Ph.III. Some part of the steering, the far side of the side steering tube sponge tightened up to such an extent on 27.G.VI. when hot that the car became very difficult to drive and would not self centre, on two occasions requiring great effort to move the steering wheel at all. If we had not taken the retrograde step of returning to plain pivots Wraith would not be prone to this trouble. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls} | ||