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).
Issues with noisy car bodies, potential solutions, and specific customer complaints.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 47\1\ Scan103 | |
| Date | 5th February 1925 | |
| To LHS.{Lord Herbert Scott} for CSC. -2- BJ1/H5.2.25 - (Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary}) obtain the general reputation of being noisy, and presumably there are many other types of body which are almost as good for the purpose, but which are not such bad boomers. We of course hope that the fabric coupling, together with the under-frame, may eventually enable us to put on any kind of body. It seems likely that with the introduction of the E4C. we shall have no necessity to order bodies which are bad boomers, as we should be able to dispose of our chassis without fitting such bodies, until such time as we have introduced the fabric coupling and the underframe, and found whether they overcome the trouble. There is another car, 68-AU, which is of very much the same design, and which is giving an infinite amount of trouble in regard to interior noise. This is for a customer in France. it was delivered from the coachbuilders on the 8th January, and was immediately found to be noisy in the interior. It has been at the Works for about a month, and is still there. The Works have been unable to get over the noise, but as mentioned above, they are still experimenting and hopeful. In the meantime the customer is attacking our Paris Office owing to the delay, and is about to send his representative to us here to investigate the matter. In any case there is going to be more delay even when the works have finished with the car, as owing to it having been at the works, the upholstery has to be cleaned throughout and the car probably revarnished. 11-TM in any case has to be revarnished before it can be delivered. I am mentioning these two cases in detail to enable you to give the matter very full consideration, so that all officials concerned may understand the very difficult position in which we are placed. We realise that every endeavour is now being made at Derby to trace the origin and overcome these noises, and we sincerely hope they will be successful, as it will be unfortunate if we have to give up making a body of a type which is our best seller, and which apparently other motor manufacturers are selling in large numbers. We feel that people who give £3,000 for a Rolls-Royce do expect silence; possibly they do not expect the same degree of silence when they purchase a cheaper car of another make. B.J. | ||