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).
Practice of slipping the Phantom clutch and comparing its performance.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 74\2\ scan0227 | |
| Date | 24th March 1929 | |
| OY. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} RE. PHANTOM CLUTCH. X. 8300 X.4194 Mr. Olley's letter is a great surprise to us. We do not know of any such trouble in any part of the world, even in our London cars. Mr. Bailey is quite right in saying we never intended any of our clutches to be slipped continuously in order to run the car slowly. We had the impression that this very old practice of 20 yrs. ago had entirely given way to throttling or changing down. Our own 40/50 cars work on the governor, which helps them to slow down and yet not stop the engine. We do not know any reason why our Phantom should be worse than those quoted - Lincoln, Packard, Buick. If you want a clutch that can be slipped more continuously we should have to put the fabric on the driven plate, but it makes it heavier for changing gear (more inertia). We will enquire further if we have to do any service work on this part. At the moment we do not know (if we were starting freshly) how we could make it better. Perhaps it is just a few drivers only who destroy their clutch by holding the foot on the pedal just enough to make the clutch slip at times of full throttle, or perhaps Springfield clutches have not our margin of spring pressure. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||