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).
Copy of a letter from Michelin Tyre Co. Ltd. explaining their refusal to manufacture oversize tyres.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 81\1\ scan0121 | |
| Date | 13th February 1914 | |
| COPY of letter from The Michelin Tyre Co. Ltd., 81, Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, S.W. 13th February 1914. KM1/18. D.C1.T. Dear Sirs, We thank you for your letter of the 10th inst., ref. Na{Mr Nadin}8/B, in answer to which we may say we do not manu-facture oversize tyres. 1. Because we are of the opinion that the principle is mechanically unsound. 2. Because their cost is out of all proportion to the service to be obtained from them, and their adoption by a private motorist commits him to a large increase in his replacement bill. An examination of the price lists of the firms marketing oversize tyres will show that the latter are in every case consider-ably more costly than the next larger standard size that which they are intended to replace. Dealing with the first point, it has always been our practice to make our tyres of the dimensions which our long experience has shown will give the best results in con-junction with the measurements of the particular rim to which they have to be fitted. Our standard sizes represent the dimensions thus arrived at, and we are convinced that any departure from these detracts from the efficiency of the tyre. As an illustration of our second point, we cannot do better than take the case of the Rolls Royce car. The standard equipment of rims and tyres is 895 x 135, in which (over) | ||