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).
Letter to a customer regarding car troubles, dispatched parts, and performance testing of a large bore engine.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 82\3\ scan0279 | |
| Date | 13th May 1935 | |
| Krova [handwritten] G.W. Hancock, Esq., Hotel de France, Chateauroux, Indre, France. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}8/KW.13.5.35. Your axle was despatched on Friday night. We also sent you a new spring clutch centre, which should overcome the trouble previously experienced. We sent the axle direct to Paris as we gather you will have to leave the borrowed axle there. We are following on with the exhaust pipe. It is unfortunate that you have had such a lot of trouble with this car. You have anyhow succeeded in supplying us with a lot of information. We note that you say Sr. does not appreciate the results obtained with the bumper bar and propellor shaft damper. We do not quite understand this and should like you to tell us a little more about his views. We have got the large bore engine running in a car here, we are delighted with it. By fitting larger carburetters we get a top horse power of 137 against about 127 on your car, and what is much more important, get much better acceleration at the intermediate speeds. The standard Bentley gets up Ticknall in about 53 secs., the large bore unit in 47.2/5 seconds. This way of improving performance is of course far better than raising the compression ratio and really puts the Bentley ahead of the rest of the market. We think both you and Sr. will be delighted with the results. We only hope we shall be able to get it on production without the Design wanting to alter the whole engine. As it is, the only modification is a new cylinder block and new pistons. I had thought the quickest way of getting the job through would be to send a new unit out to you, but from what you say the body of your car will have completely disintegrated at the end of 15,000 miles. Do you think you could get it fixed in Paris so that it would enable us to keep running ? At the same time we might learn something from the way the French Coachbuilders patch it up. | ||