Modification of the 'Vulture' engine and suggesting the adoption of the 12-cylinder 'Buzzard' engine for a new large chassis.
| Identifier | Morton\M2.4\ img030 | |
| Date | 19th November 1920 | |
| To-C.H. from R. {Sir Henry Royce} RE NEW LARGE CHASSIS - "VULTURE(Experimental 6 CYL OHV LONG STROKE / Aero Engine)". X.3548 X.3845 V.3786 The engine for this new large chassis is being modified too. After months of work and years of experience we came to the conclusion that a six-cylinder engine with overhead camshaft cannot be made silent enough and simple enough to compete with our present car engine, and would have caused endless of time and difficulties on test. We have therefore been modifying our "Vulture(Experimental 6 CYL OHV LONG STROKE / Aero Engine)" designs to an engine with overhead valves and push rods as the most promising solution for an engine to be superior to our present side-by-side "D" head engine. This does not affect the "Buzzard(Aero Engine)" which can go along without delay, and the modification to the "Vulture(Experimental 6 CYL OHV LONG STROKE / Aero Engine)" as above will be forwarded in the course of a few days, as this will be exactly similar to the modified "Goshawk(Aero Engine)(Codename for 20HP Car / Aero Engine after Kestrel(Aero Engine))". In a push rod engine with a detachable head for the six-cylinder "Vulture(Experimental 6 CYL OHV LONG STROKE / Aero Engine)" type, it would be possible for the Sales and Works to choose whether the extra virtues, if any, of the "Buzzard(Aero Engine)" engine when fitted to this new chassis, are sufficiently great to suggest that we adopt the 12 cylinder "Buzzard(Aero Engine)" engine in preference to this new "Vulture(Experimental 6 CYL OHV LONG STROKE / Aero Engine)" engine having push rods. R. {Sir Henry Royce} | ||
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).