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).
Memo outlining suggestions for a comprehensive 15,000-mile vehicle testing program.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 148\2\ scan0055 | |
| Date | 19th November 1928 guessed | |
| RAM/ To my mind, testing should establish (a) Reliability, road worthiness and comfort when driven hard for long periods (b) The degree of refinement, comfort & convenience and general "niceness", under conditions of ordinary use by the average private owner, but more intensively tested. The present 15000 or more miles in France provides well for (a) and the intensive running recently carried out on 8-B-V shows a considerable saving in both cost and time. With regard to (b), I suggest at least a week immediately before the 15000, and another week immediately after, (assuming the car is in reasonable order), of all-day London and/or Paris traffic, partly driven by others than works testers, and who are not so familiar with all the best and worst features, not only to obtain a number of different opinions, but also to see how the car behaves after handling by a number of different drivers, not merely after a few hours joy-riding but after all-day driving, in all sorts of weather conditions, not forgetting that bad conditions often bring up criticisms. Repeating the traffic tests after the 15000 would show up any deterioration in general handling & refinement. I also suggest that when further 15000 mile tests are to be made on a type of car largely similar to a type already tested, that all unaltered parts & features should be used again instead of building a new car each time, so as to gain the largest experience possible concerning wear & fatigue after really big mileages, after all, many private owners exceed 15000 miles in a year. | ||