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).
The 10,000-mile test of the 5-Goshawk-11 car in France, detailing road conditions and component failures.
| Identifier | Morton\M1.2\ img009 | |
| Date | 17th May 1922 | |
| [Handwritten annotation at top: 5 GII Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Report on 10,000 miles test? condition. ORIGINAL. Individual & total mileages of all seven Goshawks made up to date.] To R.{Sir Henry Royce} for CJ. from HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to CJ. and BJ. c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} c. to Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} c. to Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} 5-GOSHAWK-11. REPORT ON 10,000 MILES TEST IN FRANCE. Before returning from France, I spent a week at Laval with 5-Goshawk-11 car and went over most of the roads which were used for the 10,000 miles test. The roads were good average roads for France. It would be possible to easily find main roads with the surface in a much worse condition. We do not consider that the running conditions can be looked upon as exceptional for cars being run in France. *There were instances when 5-Goshawk-11 was going as fast as possible over the bad roads, it was passed by other makes of cars.* The exceptional running condition was the large amount of high speed running. The roads were straight and undulated and the car was continually being run on the down grades at speeds of 60 to 65 M.P.H., there were no gradients on the roads used for the last 6000 or 7000 miles which necessitated changing gear, therefore, such parts as Clutch, Gears etc. had less than the usual amount of work. The following failures actually occurred during the 10,000 miles test:- 1. Battery box [strikethrough text] support broken 2. Steering box cracked. 3. Top plates on both front springs broke. 4. High tension rotor shorted. 5. The commutator on two R-R generators, burst. contd:- | ||