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).
Letter to Mr. G.W. Hancock discussing vehicle performance, including steering, pistons, oil suitability, and tyre complaints.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 82\1\ scan0285 | |
| Date | 25th November 1933 | |
| X4853A Mr. G.W. Hancock, Hotel de France, Chateauroux, Indre, FRANCE. To GWH.{George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}l/KT. 25.11.33. I was glad to get your telegram and note. I should not bother too much about the slipper wheel as I do not believe we shall ever use it. As long as it does not affect the running of the car, I should leave it alone for the time being. We are interested in your steering experiences: Our second test in the Lucas cold chamber shows that the Aerolite pistons are less difficult to start than the standard R.R. product. If you can tell us definitely that with Mobiloil we are going to be in trouble with starting we may ask you to run on a thinner oil. There is no doubt that Mobiloil is the worst of our recommended oils for this trouble. We expect the axle you are now running to be heavier for steering than the one fitted to the first fifteen cars. We do expect, however, to get some return for the increased heaviness in improved selectivity. Therefore we hope your car will steer better at high speeds. Naturally the alteration to the pivots may cause the axle to require a different cross steering tube load. We should like to know whether you can reduce the friction on the balls without bringing up road shocks. We have had a certain amount of complaint that the India tyres are not good non-skids. These criticisms have been made on tyres which have done 7000 to 8000 miles, and therefore, though they appear to have plenty of non-skid tread left, are really much less effective than when new. However, we should like your opinion on this tread under winter conditions, and the India people are also sending out to you some of their super non-skid tyres, so that you can get a comparison. I do not think you will find that there | ||