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).
Letter to Cadillac discussing their model 60 Special, body styles, and flywheel design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 125\3\ scan0155 | |
| Date | 18th August 1938 | |
| 1052. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}5/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 18th August, 1938. E.W. Seaholm, Esq., The Cadillac Motor Car Co., Detroit, MICHIGAN. U.S.A. Dear Seaholm, Thank you very much for the photographs of the model 60 Special which you were good enough to send to Grylls. We think that this is an exceedingly interesting automobile and a refreshing departure from conventional American practice. I should be interested to know whether you feel that for cars intended for a discriminating clientele the 4-light saloon is likely to prove more attractive than the 6-light. In other words, have you experienced any Sales' resistance to this car owing to the fact that it is a 4-light ? With regard to the flexible flywheel, for the past 6 or 7 years we have been using a flywheel backplate which was thinned down to give a certain amount of flexibility. We found that even with the 7-bearing shaft we got a certain amount of crankshaft bending, this caused the flywheel to swash-plate at certain frequencies which could be detected in the car as a boom. We have now carried the scheme further, and are using a much more flexible flywheel back-plate with improved results. We do not, however, find it necessary to use any damping such as you incorporate on your flexible flywheel; we also use a complete disc and not a spoked member. | ||