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).
Limitations of high-speed 10,000-mile tests in detecting over-oiling issues on the 'New Phantom' model that only appear in slow traffic.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 72\1\ scan0053 | |
| Date | 29th September 1925 | |
| To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from BJ. Copy to.... EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} BJ3/H29.9.25. 48980 "NEW PHANTOMCodename for PHANTOM I" OVEROILING. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}5/LG25.9.25. You suggest that BJ1/H22.9.25 stated that it is evident that our 10,000 miles tests in France do not show up the over-oiling. The words I used were "It is evident that our 10,000 miles tests in France are useless in one respect, namely, that they do not show up faults which are only affected by slow running in traffic, etc." In discussing the 10,000 miles test, we were not only thinking of lubrication, but that in a test which was practically only a speed test, we do not get an all-round knowledge of how a car might behave when it was running month after month in London traffic. It occurred to us that possibly a car might oil its plugs running in London traffic, whereas running continually at 40 or 50 m.p.h. the plugs might keep quite clean. In addition to this, we might also find that the water might overheat, or the petrol consumption be excessively high, or that other points might appear when the car was driven in traffic which might not appear in high speed running. What we appear really to want in our 10,000 miles test is to find out how a car would behave in the hands of an average customer who might use his car partly in London, partly on the Continent and partly in the country. We realised that in our endeavour to get through our tests as quickly as possible, we have somewhat over-run the mark by only doing high speed running, and for this reason the system of testing requires further consideration. We fully realise that over-oiling is a very difficult problem indeed, and it seems evident that whilst some cars give little or no trouble in this respect, others are bad offenders, which makes it all the more difficult. We are very glad to hear that the fitting of new piston rings, etc. appears to be getting over this serious trouble. B.J. | ||