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).
Assessment of a newly acquired 1915 Buick car and a proposal to fit it with a different carburettor.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 124\3\ scan0017 | |
| Date | 19th March 1919 | |
| H H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} 235a (500 T) (S.D. 408. 26-4-17.) Bm. 2/156/13. To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from EH. c. to CJ. c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} X.3317. EH4/LG19.3.19. 19th March 1919. RE "BUICK" CAR. Mr. Cowan has obtained for us a "Buick" car. The car is a second-hand one built in 1915. The change speed and brake is in the centre of the car. The clutch is a leather cone type. Both brakes are on the rear wheels; the foot brake is external and the hand brake internal. The car is fitted with a 4-seater American Body, hood and wind-screen. The weight of the car complete without passengers is 25 cwts. It isfitted with a Delco Starter, lighting and ignition set. I drove this car from London to Derby Saturday last, it went very well. The speed on the level was 50 M.P.H. The worst feature about the car appears to be the carburetter. It is very rich at low speeds and the flexibility of the engine is not good. The springing of the car is not very nice and it is made worse by the cushions having very deep springs with no damping. We propose fitting an R.R. carburetter to this engine. We thought of taking one of the small 40/50 type of carburetter. i.e. the type before we increased the size of the mixture chamber and the throttle. Mr. Day has got out for us the proportionate size of throat and air valve ports for this engine. We consider that if we can get the R.R. carburetter to work nicely on this engine, it will be useful because we shall have a carburetter that we can put on our own small car when it comes along. EH | ||