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).
Engineering document outlining opinions and recommendations for future automotive development and testing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 178\2\ img137 | |
| Date | 4th April 1934 | |
| -14- It is the considered opinion of the G.M. engineers who have done the work on independent suspension that the Dubonnet scheme is inferior, though they admit that they favoured it to begin with. We believe that we should carry out more systematic development on coachwork, particularly concerning its accoustic properties. Also that we should seriously consider the fact that the body and chassis are gradually being merged together, and whether there is any means whereby we can adapt our system of separate custom coachwork to meet this condition. Furthermore, since the efficiency of an all-steel body becomes more and more apparent, is it not worth continually reviewing the possibility of small scale production thereof, even though at present this may seem entirely impractical. The rattles of the Bentley body in the U.S.A. were hard to explain on a 7000 £ automobile. Valve gear, combustion chamber and volumetric efficiency and bearings all call for intensive single cylinder development, also we have to follow up the latest american piston practice. We consider that we have also evidence that further development work is required on engine mounting and front end frame rigidity: also single point mounting of the front wings combined with the radiator shell. We believe that intensive test bed and road running tests should be conducted to determine the respective merits of fabric gears and silent chain as a front end drive. Also that road tests should be made on the fan with the variable pitch blades, and the new type of radiator, to see how much we can increase the efficiency of our cooling system. It is our opinion that the centrifugal super-charger merits design work as being a practical means of immediately improving performance. That a rubber type crankshaft damper should be designed and tested and that one should be made up to take advantage of this new micarta development. | ||