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 evaluation of the exhaust, clutch, steering, and gearbox systems of a vehicle.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 125\1\ scan0205 | |
| Date | 5th March 1935 | |
| -4- HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/GWH.{George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux}19/KW.5.3.35. The exhaust has the same tinniness when starting up from cold as we have experienced, but very little can be heard inside the body. A slight boom was noticeable between 40 and 50 m.p.h. Generally throughout the range of speed the exhaust was quiet. The system comprises two separate exhausts, one for each block of cylinders. The exhaust pipe and silencers are carried on the outside of the chassis frame under the running boards. A detuner is fitted close to the rear outlet pipes. The position of the pipes and silencers gives the maximum cooling effect. It also keeps the heat clear of the body and there is less possibility of exhaust smells. It is mounted rigidly. CLUTCH. The clutch has the smoothest engagement we have tested. At no time was there any sign of slipping and no chemical smell in the body. Wear was negligible. STEERING. It was stable and only slight movement of the wheel under the worst conditions. There were no road shocks, no matter what the condition of the road surface. It is definitely too low geared for town work where constant sharp turnings are required. To a certain extent this is compensated by its rapid self-centering. It was observed that a considerable amount of wear had taken place in the bearings of the knuckle joints of the front wheel suspension levers. GEARBOX. The gears were quiet when engaged. The changing of the gears has to be slower in operation than we are used to on our own cars, otherwise they are easily crashed. The top and reverse gears came out of mesh on the over-run, and towards the finish the second. The top gear became very bad in this respect. The first gear ratio is too low geared for general use. The rapid acceleration when using this gear gives a very unpleasant ride, especially if deceleration takes place. We did not seriously miss the intermediate third gear when in traffic. The box was free from oil leaks. | ||