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).
Testing delays for rubber shackles, standardisation issues, and the development of the Phantom III model.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 157\1\ scan0315 | |
| Date | 20th April 1936 | |
| -2- Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}1/MJ.20.4.36.Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} As regards your criticism of the delay in testing out rubber shackles, it must be remembered that it is only during the last few weeks we have had more than one Experimental Car. It should also be remembered that the question of general tyre noise was gone over with Sales and the policy of producing cars with rubber between the body and the chassis was agreed to. My opinion is that before we can adopt rubber shackles we require a considerable amount of experience. I should not feel satisfied with one 10,000 miles test. The introduction of rubber in the shackle means that all the driving torque and the braking torque is taken through rubber. The rear axle is too important a unit to take liberties with and we certainly should not be justified in spoiling the car for average conditions in order to obtain an indefinite improvement over .05% of the running. I do not agree that it was right to hold up the Phantom 111 10,000 miles car for fitting rubber shackles. When I raised the question of Standardisation Sheets some time ago I did not imagine we were going to be quite as bad as we find ourselves. Bentley Big Bore Cars are being delivered to customers and no Standardisation Sheets have been signed. The 25/30 is in the same state. The Phantom 111 is in a worse state. We have never yet run a Phantom 111 in France without major failures and there are a number of modifications introduced which we have no experience with. We should make an endeavour that on a new model such as Phantom 111 we ought to complete a Standardisation test before any cars are delivered. For some time now I have been continually fighting my own people who come along with improvements and criticisms of Phantom 111. I have been saying that the specification for the first 200 cars is settled and on no account can be altered. We shall never make the 'perfect' motor-car, but Phantom 111 represents a bigger advance over the previous model than any of our other efforts, and no alterations should be made to the specification until a number of cars have been in customers hands. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||