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).
The excessive oil consumption of a 4 1/4 Litre Bentley, chassis B.260.GA, owned by Mr. Embiricos.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\2\ scan0245 | |
| Date | 23th June 1937 | |
| To Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Derby. Rules 1245 Levallois. SrI/ET.23.6.37 Dictated 22.6.37 Re: CHASSIS B.260.GA - EMBIRICOS. Concerning your memo ending: "A good 4 I/4 Litre Bentley"! ------------------------- I read with great interest GWH.{George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux}'s report on all the work that had been carried out on this car to make a good Bentley of it, and I presume you will undoubtedly agree with me that this work is considerable. Furthermore, nearly every 4 1/4 litre Bentley over in France or shall we say on the Continent, develops excessive oil consumption at approximately the same mileage as Mr. Embiricos's car, i.e. 24.000 Kms. The object of this memo is not to go into minute details or to point out to you that the quality of oil that gets past the fan pulley drive or past N°7 bearing into the clutch pit has or has little effect on the overall oil consumption, but to put down on paper some general information, taking as a basis GWH.{George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux}'s report. Before I go any further, I should like to point out that this car arrived in Paris and came straight into our Depot, so that we could put large wheels on the back, as Mr. Embiricos wanted to use it as his practice car at Le Mans. At this moment, although the car had only just arrived from England, Mr. Embiricos informed us that his man had put 3 litres of oil into the sump; upon inspecting the oil.level, I was amazed, however, to discover that another litre was required to top the needle to the stop, the engine at the time being cold. Seeing this, I asked Mr. Embiricos if he would kindly keep a very careful check on his oil consumption. Having topped the oil level myself and put the mileage down on paper, I asked Mr. Embiricos to top the oil level the following morning, after his arrival at Le Mans, the car being on the flat and the engine having stood cold all night long. This he did and had to add 2 1/4 litres of oil in the sump to bring the oil level up to the stop. His mileage was 232 Kms. This you will see, is approximately I litre per 100 Kms., which he admitted is a little less than he was consuming before, but on the other hand he had not batted his car down to Le Mans in the same way as he generally does. In fact, he had not averaged more than 96 Kms. per hour. He then used his car as a practice car and covered a little over 200 Kms. on the track, his level having been topped up before starting. He left the car overnight, and the following morning he had to put 3 litres of oil. This tends to prove that, in his case oil consumption goes up with speed. Mr. Embiricos's racing car (as you have probably read) having come to grief early in the race and his Bentley having been put behind the pits where it could not be reached, he returned to Paris by train and asked us to bring the car back to Paris for him. | ||