In message <9312211026.AA05232@mansun.lut.ac.uk> you write:
>Anyway, basically I think there were about 40 RRs (mainly Silver
>Ghosts) were taking part in a European tour.....
> Firstly the reliability of these cars is still
>incredible - I would think they must have covered close to 4000 miles
>and with only 1 or 2 casualties.
I've always been in awe of Siver Ghosts ever since I saw one at the Pebble
Beach concours in 1971.
I don't think I even put them on my list of dream cars, though -- they're
almost too perfect for me to hope to attain sufficient karma to deserve on
in this life. Maybe next time around the wheel if I treat Sybil well...
I once saw a TV documentary on RR; their oldest customer was a lady in her
90's who had bought her Silver Ghost new and still drove it daily. RR
tried to get her to exchange it for a new model so they could put the
Ghost into a museum; she refused. The only thing was her doctor told her to
stop hand-cranking it! I think it had something like 500,000 miles on it and
still rn like ... like... ran like a Rolls Royce is *supposed* to, not this
modern cruft RR ltd. puts out.
>complete dynamic tuning is
>enabled though the adjustable idle speed (doubles as cruise control),
>adjustable timing and even adjustable carburetter mixture. I got the
>impression that these cars were suitable for the modern road in every
>respect apart from the rather unefficient braking - no need to get
>nervous really - yikes!
Even as late as the early 50's RR cars still had most of this. My '51
Mk VI Bentley has manual mixture control, a hand throttle, and a wonderful
Rube GOldberg servo-assisted braking system. Rear brakes are strictly
mechanical, with pushrods, and the front are hydraulic. A servo driven
off the gearbox adds assist proportional to speed, so you get more power
at high speeds and less at low, making easing to a jolt-free stop
pretty simple.
--berry
(now to get it back on the road...)
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