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).
Letter from a customer discussing the need for adjustable dampers on a Bentley and reporting a brake judder issue.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 89\3\ scan0032 | |
| Date | 11th July 1934 | |
| Peterborough 2370. The Grange, Orton Longueville, nr. Peterborough. 11th July, 1934. E.W. Hives, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Mr. Hives: Owing to my absence abroad I am sorry that I have not previously replied to the letter which you were good enough to write to me upon the 2nd May concerning the point which I raised as to the possibility of fitting adjustable friction dampers to the Bentley car. My own experience after doing just under three thousand miles over French roads is that the car's speed capabilities are very considerably reduced by the inability to increase the damping. I have been interested to learn from Mr. P.M. Stewart, who has also recently returned with his car from the Continent, that he found that he was not able to drive as fast upon French roads as on English roads. Upon long stretches of Routes Nationales I found it more than uncomfortable to exceed 70 or 75 miles an hour owing to the pitching engendered by the wavey surface, over which last year in a car fitted with Telle-control dampers I was able to drive at 90 miles an hour. I quite see the constructional difficulties involved by the small clearances, but it is to be hoped that these will be overcome so that one can take full advantage of the car's magnificent performance. At the moment I am having trouble with rather bad brake judder, which two visits to the service depot have failed to remove. I am not mentioning this as a complaint - you are doubtless interested to hear of any teething troubles of this sort. Yours truly, C.W.D. Rowe. | ||