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).
Critique of the Design Department's approach, using the Phantom III's independent suspension and carburettors as examples of adding unnecessary cost and complexity.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 148\5\ scan0111 | |
| Date | 25th August 1936 | |
| -2- Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}10/KW.25.8.36. To give another example for which design is responsible - Independent Suspension. Another contributory cause is that it is no-one's job to criticise the Design Dept. and see that they do not add cost to the chassis which does not benefit the customer. On the contrary, we are often encouraged to be original. As an example, having been over to America to investigate independent suspension, I put down in my summary of the position on returning that the Cadillac suspension appeared to me to give basically such satisfactory results, both from ride and cost points of view, that it should not be departed from unless there was some very good reason for so doing. We say that from its earliest inception it was clear that the Ph.III suspension was going to be fundamentally far more costly than the General Motors scheme, and though we have not seen the cost figures we are sure that this is confirmed in practice. We are also certain that nobody can tell us what the customer gets out of the additional cost. We are also sure that basically the Ph.III scheme is heavier than the Cadillac. The Stromberg Carburetter on the Ph.III is another instance of the same sort of thing. Why were four carburetters designed, developed, made and almost put into production when the Stromberg existed. Briefly, what we think is lacking is a co-ordination of the original programme, the basic design, the manufacturing facilities available from past experience, and the proposed selling price of the article, in order to reach some well-defined objective with the ultimate product. | ||