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 performance and issues of the 20 HP model, discussing the clutch, starter, axle, and engine mounting.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 19\5\ Scan055 | |
| Date | 11th April 1930 guessed | |
| -5- same time. It is a positive fact, that if I want to do a journey in a hurry, I should always chose the small car. I have been able to convince other people that although by the speedometer, the 20 HP. car is rather depressing, one always gets a thrill at the end of the journey due to the fact that you arrive at your destination very much quicker than you anticipated, with absolute safety and comfort. One good feature we are able to report on the 20 HP. is that since you arranged the friction clutch to be a straight-forward job, the troubles with the starter [on the Starter - handwritten] on the 20 HP. have now entirely disappeared, and although at one time we suggested that the sequence starter might be applied to the 20 HP. we think that now it is entirely unecessary. We have had difficulty with the hypoid axle on the 20 HP. The report is that the bearing which takes the journal and thrust load has failed. The axle stood up to the torque test on the dynamometer, but we think that the very high speed running which we had in France has caused it to fail. We have not yet had an opportunity of examining this axle. The rubber engine mounting on the 20 HP. has made it very much smoother at high speeds. The 'jellying' and radiator movement will need attention when we have confirmed our results on Phantom ll. We have taken power curves that shew that with the twin carburetter on the 20 HP. we get the same relative increase as we do on Phantom ll. | ||