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 regarding running issues with car 22-G-V, parts delays, and spark plug failure caused by Ethyl fuel.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 101\2\ scan0024 | |
| Date | 6th July 1936 | |
| G.W. Hancock Esq., Hotel de France, Chateauroux, Indre, FRANCE. Thank you for your various memos. from Cricklewood, etc. Re 22-G-V, before this car comes back we want to get some running on the roll rod and low rating front springs. The cylinder head, ignition, etc., have already been sent over. Unfortunately, owing to conditions with which you are familiar at the factory, in spite of our best efforts we shall not get the parts away before the holidays; i.e., July 17th. If you go on running 22-G-V mileage until then it is almost certain that the engine will have packed up. I would suggest, therefore, that if it is at all possible you should give some of the testers their holiday now, or alternatively, send them back to the Works so that we can resume running when we get the roll rod and low rating front springs fitted. Recently I have been creating a fuss because the trials cars were not being run on Ethyl and yet they were complaining of pinking. Also, customers had been warned by Depots not to run on Ethyl. Professor Dodds, in view of our recommendation, changed over to leaded fuel on his 4¼ litre and after 450 miles started to get misfiring. Archer changed his plugs, whereupon the car was O.K. He brought the defective plugs back but has not been able to demonstrate their failure to me as yet. His argument is that London traffic running produces this result, because we have run for more than 2 years in the Experimental Dept. without any very serious trouble. I should be glad if you would follow up the matter with Kingsbury next time you are in London, and see what truth there is in the suggestion. It is of course very serious if we have taken the trouble to stellite our exhaust valves and then we find customers cannot use Ethyl because the plugs pack up. According to Archer the trials cars do not suffer in the same way because they do fast runs outside the city which clean the plugs. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||