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).
Comparison of American and British motor-car design, focusing on steering, streamlining, and engine technology.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90\2\ scan0090 | |
| Date | 14th June 1938 | |
| -4- 14.6.38. The Oldsmobile is a good example of how well some of the American Motor-car Manufactuers have tackled the steering problem with reference to cornering. Success in this direction cannot, of course, be achieved without the tyres manufacturers, and they are now sitting up and taking notice. As in braking, the ultimate link in good road-holding is the adhesion between the tyre and the road. Mr. Olley has dealt fairly exhaustively with this in his paper read at Coventry earlier in the year before the I.A.E. In conclusion, we should like to commend to your notice a paper which has just been read by S.W. Sparrow before the S.A.E. at White Sulphur Springs, and which will doubtless in the S.A.E. Journal of next month. Mr. Sparrow is one of those rare examples of an American Engineer with a balanced outlook. After the bombardment we have recently received of American technical papers explaining that it is unnecessary to use any oil or any petrol in a well-designed car and at the same time cylinder bores will never wear out if the vehicle is run on oil having no viscosity, it is nice to be told that the best motor-car is likely to be the one where the best compromise has been struck between the attributes which the average customer requires. One point I have not mentioned, we find that the modern American car has very much less wind resistance than its British opposite number. The "Lincoln Zephyr" is a good example of what we like to call 'Rational Streamline'. This improves acceleration and petrol consumptions to a very appreciable extent and contrary to general opinion at speeds as low as 40 m.p.h. To avoid mechanical troubles with the power unit, streamlining should be combined with some sort of overdrive. We believe that for any cars, such as ours, which are likely to be used on the modern Autostradas, rational streamlining with an overdrive box will become common practice in the immediate future. I hope to have some interesting figures on what can be done in this respect within the next two months. On most American cars, a certain amount of visibility has been sacrificed in reducing windage. Please excuse the length of this dissertation, but it is always easier to be long-winded than concise. Yours sincerely, | ||