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).
Outlining the parameters for a 10,000-mile car test in France, focusing on tappet clearance, valve performance, cooling, and fan blades.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 82\3\ scan0221 | |
| Date | 26th April 1935 | |
| f 200a G.W. Hancock Esq., Hotel de France, Chateauroux, Indre, France. From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}7/MJ.26.4.35. This 10,000 mile test should give you an opportunity of running with .004 tappet clearance all round and, telling us whether the exhaust valves take up under French road conditions. We are not proposing to do this for cars going to France but should like to know the worst. Actually on the test bed we have to run three or four minutes full throttle over 4,000 RPM. to get exhaust valves off their seats. The other point is that if the Austenitic valves do come off their seats do they burn up rapidly?. Another point, is the cooling of the car adequate with the new radiator?. If you get some warm weather you should be able to check this in the Clermont Ferrand district. This car with two passengers in will be equivalent to the normal car with four passengers and luggage. You need not load it up. We recommend that you run the fan with the Aluminium blades as we do not think any of the fan failure has been due to the blades coming off but to out of balance and there will be less chance of the Aluminium blades coming out of balance than the steel blades. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||