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).
Performance evaluation of a car's key mechanical components.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 21\2\ Scan058 | |
| Date | 28th June 1928 guessed | |
| contd :- -3- BRAKES. Fair - not well equalised pulling to the N.S. The Dewandre servo does not let the foot pedal up as rapidly as one could wish, making snap braking in traffic difficult. On the whole inferior to RR. practice. ENGINE. Noisy - the valve gear cannot be compared with RR. practice for silence. One bad piston knock audible. The low speed torque of the car is poor considering the gear ratio. In spite of this it pinked badly unless the ignition was retarded below 30 m.p.h. on top gear. However, owing to the poor low speed torque, torque reaction was not in evidence. The car was very smooth over the whole range, this we believe is largely attributable to the rubber engine mounting as many vibrations came through the clutch pedal. We did not touch the crank master period at 3700 r.p.m. by rev. counter. CLUTCH. Only fair - shewed reluctance to disengage and a tendency to slip. GEARBOX. Not up to RR. standard. SUSPENSION. This seems to be the best feature of the car. It is very firm yet does not seem to be harsh, but is a difficult point to judge without extended experience. They have Woodhead rebound leaf type springs fitted all round. The impression is they get better car control with less damping than we require. Rear buffer clearance 4" approximately. contd :- | ||