The need for bumper bars and suggestions for redesigning tail lamp and number plate assemblies for cars in Australia.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 72\2\ scan0026 | |
| Date | 6th September 1927 | |
| 48990 Whr. {Mr Wheeler} London. Pt.5/RM {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} -6/9/27. The parking of cars in Australian cities is becoming such an extremely acute question that bumper bars are now looked upon as absolutely essential. In effect they lengthen the car and thus make it a bigger nuisance to its neighbour but they certainly protect to some extent some of the lighter parts of the chassis to which they are fitted such as head lamps and wings at the front, and petrol tank, tail light and luggage grid at the rear. I think we will have to adopt the fitting of these and it would be much better if they were of a Works designed job than an after thought. My reason for drawing your attention to this at this juncture is that I have received so many complaints from customers lately whose tail lamps have been squashed up and completely ruined by the bumper bars of other cars, and I must confess I have also been a sufferer in this direction with my own car. The tail lamp on a Rolls-Royce car is in a terribly exposed position, and now that we incorporate in our tank a frame for the number plate, I suggest we might go a step further and incorporate also from or an elongated globe to illuminate the number plate from above to show white down and red rear. If this were done it would be in a much more protected position than is the present tail lamp carried on a bracket and extended some distance rearward. On my own car, for instance which carries the number plate on a bar supported by the two tail lamp brackets of the tank, the overall length of the car is increased some six inches over what it would be if my suggestions were adopted and six inches is six inches when it comes to parking. In Australia we are forbidden to paint our numbers on radiator or tank but have to carry number plates, not only that these number plates are of standard design and issued by the Police Department. Pt. C. to L.W.S. London. C.P.S. Derby Hdq. " Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} " | ||
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).