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).
Minor issues with a Bentley following a test drive, focusing on the starter, fuel tank, bonnet, and steering.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 62\1\ scan0195 | |
| Date | 7th November 1933 | |
| To Mr. from K.{Mr Kilner} c. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Ser. By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} Mr. MX.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} MS/Wst. Dy{F R Danby}/Mr. WST With regard to the Bentley which I drove to London and back last week-end, I noticed one or two minor points which appear to merit some attention. Self Starter. The car was left out purposely exposed for testing the starting in the morning on two occasions, and the engine turning was very sluggish, in fact almost seemed to stop on the compression. We went into this question some time ago with a view to reducing the volt drop, which is rather large owing to the distance between the starter motor and battery, and it was decided at that time to double the cross sectional area of the conductors. The present standard of starting does not appear to me to be good enough to deliver to customers. Petrol Tank. The petrol pump starts to work intermittently at high speed as soon as the fuel level gets down into the neighbourhood of four gallons shewing that the suction pipe is being uncovered. We are looking into this with a view to incorporating a circular baffle. Bonnet Rattles. The bonnet had a very pronounced and objectionable rattle at a certain engine speed. This was on the steering side where the bonnet is rather weakened and was cured by bending the side plate over one's knee. We are looking into this to see if it is advisable to add some form of stiffener as Mr. has reported to us that the distortion of the side plate is not a permanent cure. Steering Wheel. We should like to try a rigid steering wheel on a Bentley to improve the control on corners. The wheel on the car in question is obviously a defective sample as it springs under pressure to another position with a jerk, but nevertheless a spring steering wheel should not be necessary on our car and is not a very nice thing to have on a steering like ours with pronounced caster action requiring holding upon bends. K.{Mr Kilner} | ||