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).
Trial of a Maybach car's gearbox and considerations for developing a similar easy-change, silent gearbox.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 22\5\ Scan039 | |
| Date | 4th March 1931 | |
| X3531 To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Copy to R.{Sir Henry Royce} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} re Trial of Maybach Car. Berlin. Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}4/E4.3.31. X.3531. X.2200. The report Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}17/KT.2.3.31 is of very great interest and I am glad that you decided not to purchase until we had made a trial. It certainly looks as if there were no case for buying a complete Maybach car. I shall be interested to hear what R.{Sir Henry Royce} says in regard to the recommendation that we should buy a gearbox and fit it to a P.II. This very probably is worth while but at the same time it does not look as if the Maybach people had been able to make their gearbox quiet enough for us. Possibly an investigation and trial would show that we could eliminate the noise in neutral etc. to which the report refers. I am very much concerned as to whether we are not trying to achieve too much in one step. I have, as you know, been saying for many many months that it was absolutely essential to have within a reasonable period an easy change and silent third. I have always been under the impression that it would be possible to get this fairly easily without a great deal of development work and had in mind that behind this first step we would bring along as a development job something which would give us all the advantages which we appear to be seeking at the present time. The report the other day on the easy change gearbox is so discouraging as to cause me to form the above impression and to think that, if we pursue that line, it will still be many, many months before we have anything to offer at all. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} | ||