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).
Inability to reproduce a flooding issue on car WXA-1 and a non-standard carburettor adjustment.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 109\5\ scan0038 | |
| Date | 20th April 1938 | |
| 664 Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} c. EY. c. LA.{L. A. Archer} c. MX.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}6/R.20.4.38. Your Car - WXA-1. Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}12/E11.4.38. You will see from LA{L. A. Archer}1/T.13.4.38. that we were unable to reproduce the trouble of which you complained while your car was at Derby. Also, although it is not quite clear from his report, Ratcliffe states that your driver was unable to demonstrate the flooding to him when he visited London, he could only deduct that it might occur by removing the float chamber lid{A. J. Lidsey} and cranking the engine over with the ignition off and the pumps on - this is an artificial situation. The only alteration Ratcliffe made which affected the trouble was to lower the carburetter level .125". You will appreciate that this is a non-standard adjustment and one which has not so far been found necessary on the 15,000 miles' car, MX{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer}'s car, or on our other experimental cars. We now accept that the matter requires further investigation. We do not, however, think that the case is comparable with that of a customer, since we hope and expect that your car will supply us with experimental data of this nature. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||