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).
Car's performance during a high-speed trial, including details on speed, braking, oil pressure, and comparisons with Bugatti cars.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\2\ scan0250 | |
| Date | 23th June 1937 | |
| Sr2/ET.23.6.37 - 2 - As regards my car, it went like blue smoke. It is in very fine fettle and the brakes were magnificent. I made free use of them and put up some very high speeds. In fact, my light car is most amazing on that particular course. I was clocked at 133 K.P.H.* I have difficulty in believing this, but I do know that I lapped several times with three and four people in the car, at 127K.P.H. My brakes never faded or tinkled; if a criticism is necessary, it would have to be that, owing to my having more front wheel braking than standard, in one of the bends where the soil was particularly undulated, heavy braking at 90 M.P.H. to drop my speed for a third change down, produced a certain amount of front end jellying. This, however, had no definite ill effect and I am confident that very few customers would ever go into a bend at such a speed. Apart from this particular bend, which is known to be bad as one comes into it down a fairly sharp slope, for the rest of the course the car was perfect. In fact it created a great impression on more than one passenger I carried, including some racing drivers and press agents. My oil consumption was almost negligible. This, however, I explained in another memo. My oil pressure, however, after continual batting, dropped to approximately 19 lbs.; it is generally round about 25 to 27 lbs. Since I have returned to Paris, my right front brake has developed a frightful squeak when braking lightly. I am having the brake drum removed to investigate. With regard to the race itself, this was very interesting. Unfortunately, it was marred by a nasty accident involving the death of two drivers. It might, however, have been very much worse as Chiron and Sommer, who should definitely have crashed, both developed mechanical trouble about 2 Kms. before the scene of the crash, therefore their speed was right down when they were flagged and therefore able to stop. The Bugatti was very impressive and admirably driven, especially by Wimille, and it is obvious that, had they not broken the arms of their rear shock absorbers at about 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, their average for the race would have been in the region of 140 Kms. Wimille, as you probably know beat the lap record by lapping in 5'15" which, if I am not mistaken, works out 152 K.P.H. He told me quite frankly that they were nursing the car and not using brakes as they knew that, if they did, the brakes would not stand up to the work; but he had confidence that, had he been pushed by another car, he would have succeeded in lapping at least once in 5', i.e. an average of 160 K.P.H. Apart from shock absorber trouble, the car ran like a clock and the engine ticked over at the finish in the same way as it did at the start. The other Bugatti came to grief owing to a petrol tank leak, caused by the body rubbing on the tank. * This figure of 133 K.P.H. has since been officially confirmed. (not so bad for a touring car?) | ||