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).
Various vehicle issues including noisy tyres, rattles, clearances, and a discussion on fuel octane and valve types.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\5\ scan0305 | |
| Date | 2nd April 1940 | |
| Sr2/ET.2.4.40 - 3 - The tyres, whilst being good for road'holding, are very noisy over pavé and particularly so over small pavé. There are all sorts of rattles coming from different controls in the front, which are being taken up and being got rid of one by one. There are some nasty tappet noises which I hope we have now overcome by setting at 6 cold (by the way what is the correct setting?) One of the main troubles seems to be the rubber mounting on the bent front pan, which settles down continuously and allows all the body clearances to come and rub up against various parts of the chassis. We have packed this mounting on two occasions and have now removed the original packing and replaced it by ferodo, which I hope will stay put. Thereware all sorts of insufficient clearances on the front of the car on its original test. Extra clearance had to be given on the two points indicated in red on Paulin's sketch. Paulin incidentally thinks that with a "couple of well directed dreams" and perhaps a "sleepless night thrown in", he would be able to improve the front mounting very much. He will be writing to you on this subject. Generally speaking it was the opinion of all and sundry of those who have had the honour to sit in the car, that it is a very fine bit of mechanism, and were it not for this confounded war, I should certainly be doing some business on the high ways of France. However, in the meantime I have decided that a book will be kept specially for this chassis at Levallois and will be entered up by any mechanics working on the car and that I personally will report to you at regular intervals. Incidentally, you might let me know if I should come to any harm by using 87 octane fuel, or even 100 when I go up to the squadrons. I fed the Wraith on 87 octane when I was last up there and it seemed to revel in it. One certainly lost all notion of having an engine under a bonnet at all! I was rather amused by a Squadron Leader remarking that I should burn up all my valves, as one had to use "stellited" valves with such fuel. I replied that "stellited" valves were fitted to our cars many years ago and I was discovering more and more that the car section could still, even now, be very useful to the aero section, if the latter would sometimes listen. Incidentally, I am not sure whether we still fit "stellited" valves, so you had better let me know before I do some damage. [Stamped text on the left margin: YA] | ||