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).
Rear-engine car design, weight distribution, and handling characteristics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img153 | |
| Date | 17th June 1933 guessed | |
| 5. central when car is normally loaded seems essential. Burney's reasoning for a 2/3 - 1/3 division is deliberate misrepresentation of the N.P.L. work on braking and is not borne out by anything we have done. On the other hand such a division absolutely needs twin tyres at the rear if the car is to corner without nosing in at alarming angles, tearing the tread off the rear tires, and eventually going into a flat spin. Rear engines will come I think so soon as we make the total weight of the power unit half the present figure relative to total car weight, so that it can be put in the rear without disturbing present central position of c.g. This fits in with your own idea of the use of supercharging on r.{Sir Henry Royce} engine cars. I have seen some much better looking designs of r.{Sir Henry Royce} engine cars than Burney's. Notably a man called Hoffmann here has some really fine ideas. Everything including the radiator will have to be at the rear, and means must be found to cool it without using the nose-pressure. This takes all the masses off the front end & presumably the frame might as well be abandoned in front. | ||