Limousine seating comfort, engine positioning, and potential chassis design improvements.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 9\5\ 05-page002 | |
| Date | 16th October 1935 | |
| -2- Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Lee.21/KW.16.10.35. The fact that the occasional seats of a limousine give a far better ride than the rear seats is distressing. We feel investigations should be made to see if a practical body can be evolved with the luxury rear seats in front of the occasional seats. Although such a seating arrangement would not be so compact, the huge advantage gained in comfort for the owner when alone in the back, would amply justify a slight increase in wheel base. For Wraith the position is even more serious, as all the advantage gained by the forward engine mounting is lost by the longer engine. The dashboard is not moved any further forward. With Ph.III a gain was made by the engine being 5.5" shorter than Ph.II. Wraith, however, is 5" longer than our 30 HP., the Wraith engine being longer than Ph.III. The distance of the dashboard from the centre line of the front wheels is 39" on Wraith compared with 17½" on the 30 HP. V.8 Ford. Thus the Ford engine and its position would enable our rear seats to be moved 21½" further forward from the rear axle. We consider that an engine which is suitable for a car to replace our 25 HP. chassis could with advantage from the suspension point of view be considerably shorter than our present engine. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Lee. | ||
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).