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).
Page from 'The Autocar' magazine featuring correspondence and articles on various motoring topics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0348 | |
| Date | 3rd October 1941 | |
| 794 The Autocar October 3rd, 1941 Correspondence contestants of later years, his record is definitely very good, and I feel he deserves more credit than he has been given. Another driver who has done extremely well in the few events he has entered is A.{Mr Adams} F.{Mr Friese} P. Fane; examples of his fine driving were the record at Shelsley, fast runs at Prescott, class records “Round the Mountain” and his successes in Campbell Circuit handicaps with the B.M.W. I consider Fane’s record-breaking run at Shelsley an excellent piece of driving, and when one reads Mays’ account of a run up the course, where he says it is difficult, and a dangerous moment, when he has to take his hand from the wheel to select a lower gear, approaching the S-bend, one can appreciate Fane’s masterly handling of his Frazer Nash when he changes down on the “Nash dogs”—a much more difficult job than flicking a preselector gear lever down a couple of notches. One factor that I think should play a great part in deciding the best driver is the ability to handle many different makes of car with equal skill. If this point is considered Mays would be ousted from first place, I am afraid, for since 1933 he has driven E.R.A.s the whole time with the exception of one drive in a Talbot-Darracq and has actually admitted that, like Bira, he now finds difficulty in using a plain box. C. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} C. Martin definitely scores on this point, for he has driven countless makes equally efficiently. As a hill-climbing exponent, I should definitely agree to Mays being on top and, keeping to your contributor’s limitations, I should displace Wakefield and put Martin in his place, though I would place him on top if there were no limitations. DENIS S. JENKINSON. Cove, Hants. Experience and Record of Raymond Mays [50386.]—May I congratulate you on your excellent and, I think, very fair article, “Best British Racing Driver,” in The Autocar of September 12th? No doubt this will cause a great deal of controversy, but I, and, I am sure, many other enthusiasts, are in agreement with your contributor’s choice of Raymond Mays as “Britain’s Best.” “Sammy” Davis has said that a driver’s first duty is to keep his car on the road, and in this respect Mays is surely supreme, as it is hardly possible to remember him ever even having had a wheel off the road—let alone anything even approaching an accident. With a career extending over eighteen years both at home and abroad his experience certainly far surpasses that of any other of our still-active drivers. These points, together with the fact that he was largely responsible for producing the E.R.A. which has so nobly upheld British racing prestige, certainly entitle Mays to be placed foremost of our present-day drivers. It is to him that we must largely look to lead and reinstate British motor racing in the, we hope, not-far-distant days when we shall have finally dealt with that “madman from Munich.” PATRICK GREEN. R.A.F. IN THE EARLY DAYS Hill-climbing Performances of No Mean Merit [50387.]—Mr. R.{Sir Henry Royce} Vivian [50340] has too poor an opinion of 1902-1904 vintage cars. Actually they were not so bad, as the following figures show. Westerham Hill-climb, September, 1903, presumably from a standing start: The winner, a 10 h.p. Serpollet steamer, averaged 22.23 m.p.h. Seventeen makes of petrol car averaged over 10 m.p.h. The best speeds for the following climbs in 1903 were: Bury Hill, 17.29 m.p.h.; Handcross, 26.70 m.p.h.; Hindhead, 33.86 m.p.h.; Kirkfield Bank, 17.17 m.p.h.; Wentworth Woodhouse, 41.04 m.p.h. Over these very short courses the 10 h.p. steamer invariably made even the largest petrol car look silly. COACHBUILDER. London, W.1. WHEN THE CAR IS A “TAXI” A Plan Which Minimises Risk of Delay from Punctures [50388.]—Doubtless many of your readers, like myself, living in remote country districts, find it necessary to use a car for daily journeys to and from a railway station in connection with their work. If there is anything amiss with the car in the mornings there is little time in which to locate and cure the trouble, and no assistance is at hand. Punctures are, virtually speaking, the only thing I fear, and to jack up and change the wheel would almost certainly mean losing the train and having to wait some considerable time for the next, and slower, one. I have, therefore, adopted a simple plan which, on three or four occasions during the past several years, has saved me from being let down in this way. On arrival home in the evening I stable the car in the usual way but do not close the doors. Then, two or three hours later, or in any case before retiring, I look round the tyres to see that all are standing up. If they are—well and good, I lock the car away for the night; but if any one of them is down, or obviously going down, I deal with it then and thus avoid the risk of finding a puncture when short of time in the morning. Perhaps the tip, if such it can be called, might be useful to anyone similarly placed who had not thought of it. CHAS. S. LAKE. Bletchley. SUMP DILUTION Exceptionally Light Oil Consumption is Sometimes to be Regarded with Suspicion [50389.]—Some time ago my car broke down and I found five out of the twelve piston rings broken (it is a 1934 Triumph Ten). The centre groove on each piston was so badly worn that machining for a new ring was out of the question, and it was evident that a rebore and new pistons were indicated. I instructed the garage to put back the old pistons less the middle ring. This was done, and, incidentally, it cost me £10, so I did not save much after all! After this, dilution of the oil in the sump commenced, but apart from this the car runs quite well, starts up perfectly, and does not smoke from the exhaust. The piston slap is rather terrifying at first, but it goes off as soon as the engine gains revs. I fitted a smaller jet (95 in place of 105 main jet) to economise petrol, and the result was that instead of the sump collecting petrol it began to lose oil at a quite alarming rate. The dilution pretty well ceased. (I have not tested the residue, but the oil pressure is a very good indication of the state of the oil.) I have now increased the jet to 100, and I keep the sump only half full, allowing it to warm up more quickly to avoid condensation as much as possible. I seem to have struck a balance between excessive dilution and consumption of oil. I think that it will pay owners to look into the matter of very low oil consumption in case they are really only substituting Pool petrol for oil in the sump. I know several people who boast of their remarkable m.p.g. of oil. ICHABOD. Reading. “WORLD’S BEST CAR” THOUGHTS Prices Obtained Immediately After the Last War [50390.]—The letter from Mr. P. Paddón [50322] revives memories of the colossal prices paid for Rolls-Royce cars in 1919. I well remember a super-optimist who advertised a 1914 model in The Autocar, through a box number, for £10,000; at Goddard and Smith's auctions they fetched £3,000 to £5,000, after having been used by the British Army in all parts of the Continent, and these were all, of course, Silver Ghost 40-50 h.p. chassis. Many other makes were used in the Great War, such as Crossley and Rover-Sunbeam, and although they were a high price to buy second-hand they never reached anything like the ratio of 300 to 500 per cent. above cost price when new, so it will easily be seen what was the motoring public’s idea of the “world’s best car” in 1919. Coming to more recent times, I have had experience of both the best American and British makes, and I quite agree that the modern Bentley is the most pleasant car in existence for the owner-driver who values speed and liveliness with safety. It has a performance that will satisfy anybody except those people who imagine that no car is fast unless it has an exhaust more like a machine-gun in action. I think that most owners of the last 4 ¼-litre model produced prior to the present war will agree that where its overdrive gear is used as it is intended it makes 30 h.p. do a genuine 20 m.p.g., and this with no meddling or tinkering about with the jets in the carburettors. Apart from what I have read of the Mark V post-war type, the only improvements I would very much like to see as a potential owner are, first, the inclusion of a built-in electrical heater to keep the water system warm in the garage in severe winter weather (this would save a lot of needless wear on the cylinders during the warming-up period, and would keep R 14 | ||