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).
Vehicle road tests focusing on engine cooling performance during continental mountain climbs and customer feedback on the issue.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 24\4\ Scan159 | |
| Date | 13th August 1924 | |
| Copy of PN{Mr Northey}3/KW13.8.24. - 2 - better than the general functioning of the car, other than in respect of the trouble referred to in the foregoing. The old system of standard two-wheel brakes astonished the two pressmen at their effectiveness when descending 8,500 ft. with no evidence of overheating (I kept the third gear always in, and this gear is very silent on the over-run) but in many parts of these climbs when the engine was capable of driving the car at a speed of, say, 26 - 30 miles an hour, I had to fall into second gear to keep the temperature anywhere within practical limits. I was surprised at how little effect increasing the engine speed and therefore the fan speed had in these circumstances. I only once in my recollection had to fill up a radiator more frequently with water than on this trip, and this was when I drove a Ford car from Paris to Madrid in the month of March. When I was at Lyons I had an interview with Senor Ubertalli specially at our Agents (Mr. Nicholls) request, in order to assist in cooling him down from the excessive annoyance he was feeling at being unable to clib what he des-n cribed as even a moderate hill in the Alps with his new Rolls-Royce without boiling. This man is very wealthy I understand he has eight cars, and he merely replied quite logically, "It is no good to tell me that your car is designed to run for the greater part of the year at a highly efficient temperature, so that its consumption of fuel is thereby better and so forth. What I want to do is to get over the mountainous country without boiling the water off, and without being made to look such a fool, as is the case every time cars costing half the money pass me easily without boiling." Undoubtedly motoring conditions in this country are so easy that it is not possible to carry out road tests on cars here with any satisfactory degree of effectiveness. Most people who buy and use Rolls-Royce cars will undoubtedly expect to use them as a matter of routine on the Continent, and to find them right and practicable under these conditions. Inasmuch as every feature of a car is a compromise it is at least a matter for careful weighing up as to how far any given car shall be expected to remain below a certain temperature under any given conditions of service. For instance I suggest that it would not be unreasonable if we insisted that any produced by Rolls-Royce should be capable of climbing both the mountains referred to in the foregoing without losing water. It is not a question of remaining on top gear on the steep parts of these passes, because the gradients require a lower gear. | ||