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 discussing travel arrangements, performance testing, and tyre pressure settings for a streamlined car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 161\1\ scan0113 | |
| Date | 5th July 1938 | |
| 1245 W/P. Sr. from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/R.5.7.38. Dear Sr., Thank you for a very enjoyable week-end. I am provisionally arranging to come over by British Airways Service which arrives Le Bourget @ 12.25. on Monday next. If, for any reason, it appears that the streamlined car will not be ready for test on Monday afternoon, I should be glad if you could let me know on Friday of this week. I suggest the car should be taken on the road to see that there are no fouls, etc. With regard to performance figures on this car, whilst I appreciate your anxiety to get a lap speed at Montlhery, I personally am very much more concerned to get an impression as to how an aero-dynamic car behaves on the road. I also think we could, with advantage, get our top speed figure on the road. You doubtless know of a quiet spot where we could get a flying two kilometers in either direction. It might be necessary to get up early and get one or two people to watch at crossroads. Another thing I want to do is to get photographs of the Paulin car accelerating away from a standard car of the same weight. These could be taken either with a Leica or a small ciné camera. We shall naturally have to make a few calculations from gear ratio charts to make sure that the ratios when accelerating are about comparable, i.e., 3rd on the Paulin will be much the same as top on the standard. With regard to your tyre pressures on this car, we recommend that you try two arrangements, firstly, that you run the large tyres on the back and the standard on the front, rear pressure 35, front 25, cold. We consider that this arrangement would make the car go straight under any circumstances we have so far encountered. Secondly, using big tyres all round, have the same pressures on the front and 40 on the back, but you may find this so uncomfortable that you will not be able to tolerate it. It may be that the car will not be as bad as we think, in which case you can go on letting the rear tyre pressures down until the car begins to feel unstable. | ||