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).
Functional and styling requirements for a sliding roof, focusing on drainage and noise reduction.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 26\1\ Scan179 | |
| Date | 13th February 1957 | |
| To: JPB c: VS{J. Vickers} VS{J. Vickers}/HPJ FJH{Fred J. Hardy - Chief Dev. Engineer}/MHR.{M. H. Rigby}7.SEW. 13.2.57. Sliding Roof From a functional point of view the draining arrangements of a sliding roof must :- a) drain when they are clean b) be easy to clean c) be quiet Styling clearly requires that the draining arrangements are invisible. The object of our interest in this subject was to reduce the very large amount of noise from both front and rear drain holes and from the rear corners of the roof aperture which can never be well sealed. The drain covers developed (and from your memo I gather instructed to Park Ward) were the best that could be done to reduce the noise, which was still considerable. We therefore arranged for a piece of calico to be stuck right across the sliding roof frame to the rear of the aperture as additional sound insulation behind the headlining. This modification reduced the noise from the rear drains and the rear corners of the roof aperture to quite acceptable proportions, although of course the noise from the front drains was unaffected. This front drain noise is impossible to improve, but is better on cars which are lucky in the fit of the finisher in the aperture. From a noise viewpoint therefore, we should like to be able to take the front drains by tube down the windscreen pillars, if this were possible, but they would then be difficult Continued... | ||