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 the Cadillac Motor Car Co. discussing the performance of Aerolite pistons, including test results and planned modifications.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img183 | |
| Date | 3rd May 1934 | |
| Exptl. Dept. HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson}9/KW. 3rd May, 1934. M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} Olley, Esq., The Cadillac Motor Car Co., Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Dear Olley, Ellie asked me for particulars of our piston, of which we send him the drawings herewith. He may be interested to know that the Aerolite pistons are going very well here, the remarkable feature being that they do not wear appreciably. The only knocks we have had have been slight cold taps from a set we flogged on the Test bed. On examination we found that this knock was due to a slight amount of distortion which had taken place owing to the high temperature conditions under which the pistons had been running. We are altering the grinding contour slightly to take care of this. We have covered over 40,000 miles on the road now, so that we are beginning to get some experience. We have definitely confirmed the improvement in power output as being about 7%, the peculiar thing being that this 7% persists well down the mean effective pressure curve; in other words, we get about 7% better acceleration from 40 M.P.H. upwards when using Aerolite pistons as compared with our standard split skirt type. We have furthermore measured about 10% of heat reduction into the cooling water due to the higher mechanical efficiency of the Aerolite pistons. Yours sincerely, FOR ROLLS-ROYCE LIMITED. | ||