Report from France on road tests covering braking, clutch, exhaust, and fuel supply issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 11\5\ 05-page068 | |
| Date | 19th April 1934 | |
| To Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} From G.W.H. Hotel de France, Chateauroux(French test region), FRANCE. 19.4.34. 28-EX. We have received your letter of 14.4.34 re. universal joints, and memo. of the 10.4.34. We have obtained steel plates seven inches long by two and a half wide by five sixteenths thick, and fitted them under the rear axle spring pads. Tests on the road this morning prove firstly that the soft riding is unaltered. BRAKING & CLUTCH TESTS. There appeared to be a 25% less twisting action of the axle both when braking and when letting the clutch in. To obtain a more definite value the car has gone out again, the dampers to be used with minimum loads, high speeds as the roads allow, and generally to treat the car as it was done in the first place. The joints have been painted where the indents were. We hope with these tests to prove the value of the extra spring pad. We note your remarks re. tappets and will carry out your wishes. The charts and our previous memos will, we hope, explain the reason of the high bonnet temperatures. There is one more item which may be of interest to you, that is, this exhaust system becomes hotter than our previous exhaust. at night you can see the exhaust pipes from the manifold to the end of the rear silencer blood red. This is we assume with having one pipe right through. PETROL FAILURE. We do not get a complete hold up as experienced with the mechanical pump. one is able to go spluttering along at about 20 M.P.H. in fits and jerks. The engine starts up readily enough after having been stopped. The length of time taken to clear depends on how the car is driven. The faster you can get along the quicker it clears, but if one tries to run at a medium speed, it takes longer. On the day when we had an air temp. on the road of 31°C we could not keep going at more than 40 M.P.H., and the drivers stopped at every chance to obtain water and douched the petrol filter and pipe lines. It is not peculiar to | ||
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).