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).
Issues with body rattles, subframe performance, and specific component failures from coachbuilders.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\U\2January1930-September1930\ Scan185 | |
| Date | 25th June 1930 | |
| EVI/25.6.30 cont. the fromt brake countershaft on the clutch casing. The undersheets had been filled up with mud making a solid mass. The chief source of entry was through a square hole in the engine guards opposite the starter motor. BODY RATTLES. I was not able to try this car on the road, but have been told that the car has been recalled before the conclusion of its tour due to this cause. A conference is to held in London on the subject of rattles in general and with special reference to this car. There is a feeling of disappointment that the subframe has not cured all of our troubles with body rattles. We believe that if this body now rattles and is built on the subframe it would have rattled much sooner had it have been built without the subframe. Our experimental cars testify this. We do know that Thrupp bodies are notorious for rattling. We have other examples besides this one. They are not the people to make a body for such a severe task as that which this one has had to endure. A body without a de ville front would have fared better on such a tour, such a car as 18.EX. The Musalewhite scheme of having floating doors and a fibre resting plate under the front end of the door we have always opposed as being bad. Thrupps have now dropped it. The continental type of concealed hinge which was used we have been told by other coachbuilders is bad for the following reasons. (a) The bearing area is small. (b) The pillar is almost cut into two. (c) The fixing is weak. (d) The hinge is strained when the door is fully opened. The whole-piece windscreen has cracked, due we believe to its being mounted in the screen framing without being cushioned with rubber to allow for the distortion of the transverse section of the body at the screen section. We would like to be able to try the body on the road and to locate the rattles before attending the conference. We would also like HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} to try the car and to give us his views. To build a body to withstand such conditions calls for special attention to the construction at certain points. We do not believe that Thrupps have had the necessary experience of these severe conditions, and in that way they are less well fitted for the job than some Continental coachbuilders. | ||