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).
20,000-mile review of an SS Jaguar 3.5-litre saloon, detailing its performance and reliability during intensive motoring at home and abroad.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 126\5\ scan0124 | |
| Date | 9th May 1939 | |
| File for P.M. 10 May 9, 1939. 543 The Motor 20,000 Miles with an SS{S. Smith} Jaguar Impressions of a Popular Saloon After Intensive Motoring at Home and Abroad By R.{Sir Henry Royce} L. de B. Walkerley I GRANT you 20,000 miles is not a very great mileage, but there's no doubt that it is quite long enough to find out something about a motor-car. It doesn't speak well if in that time you've got to have all sorts of things done to the machinery. Well, I recently knocked up 20,000 miles on the SS{S. Smith} 3½-litre saloon I bought in May of last year, since when the car has averaged 1,818 miles per month or 454 per week—which is pretty steady motoring, after all. There's no doubt that this model is one of the most deservedly popular cars on the road to-day. The car looks good and it is good. You can buy this car from two motives: elegance of bodywork or performance on the road—for it has both in a big way. In this case beauty is definitely not cellulose deep. The amusing thing is that at such a moderate outlay you can take on anything on the road. The car goes so fast that I have been too lazy to bother about checking the speedometer, but an exactly similar car as road-tested by us did 92 m.p.h. on top and 76 m.p.h. on third. Either my speedometer is a thought on the right side or I have a slightly better car, but, after 1,000 miles of running-in at under 50 m.p.h., mine did 94 m.p.h., and once, on that back leg of the Rheims circuit, which starts with a downhill rush and goes level for the rest, it did 96 m.p.h. and held it, three up and with luggage. Now, when 20,000 miles of coke sits in the cylinder head, the needle still goes past the 90 m.p.h. mark without any bother. And the point about this performance is that it is done without noise, vibration, or any suggestion that the engine is working at all hard. As a matter of fact, it isn't, because 4,500 r.p.m. is no great hurry for a crankshaft. Nothing To Do In this 20,000 miles, apart from the usual free service when it was new, nothing has been done to the car at all except for a tappet adjustment at 10,000 miles (only three needed altering), and the Girling brakes have been taken up twice and still have loads of adjustment left. I haven't really thought about decarbonizing yet, as the engine is still as smooth as ever and has lost no tune to notice. About half the mileage has been done abroad, last summer and this recent winter, when we went on the Monte Carlo Rally—in snow and ice and all that—and one thing which stuck out a mile was that it takes a lot of hard work to make the SS{S. Smith} slide. High-speed Cruising Without Effort Such a car is at its best abroad, where the roads are long and straight and high speeds become really safe. The 3½-litre runs like a train at 70 m.p.h., with no sound from engine or back axle, and only the soft roar of the wind past the body to suggest that the speed is really quite high. I don't believe much in telling people about the averages one puts up, but as some guide to the sort of car this is, I will murmur that, in order to catch the boat at Boulogne, we averaged 57 m.p.h. from Paris, without hurrying, including slowing down like gentlemen for villages and towns en route and without exceeding 75 m.p.h. anywhere. In point of fact, the autobahn cruising speed in Germany was a steady and really comfortable 80 m.p.h. for an hour or two on end, during which the thermometer never moved above 75 degrees. As to springing, the SS{S. Smith} is on the sports-car side—firm and stable—but is by no means harsh at any speed. Rear-seat passengers will tell you how comfortable the back-seat ride is. In fact, some of those who have [Image Caption 1] Imposing frontal aspect, you must admit—the 3½-litre SS{S. Smith} Jaguar saloon somewhere in the Maritime Alps [Image Caption 2] On the way home from the Monte Carlo Rally, at the Chateau of Larochepot, Burgundy. 815 | ||