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Private memo discussing the design and aerodynamic testing of a new streamline car, focusing on radiator height.


Identifier  ExFiles\Box 161\1\  scan0067
Date  2nd December 1937
  
PRIVATE.
1380

W/P.
Sr. from Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer}

Rm {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 7/R.2.12.37.

STREAMLINEExperimental Streamline Bentley B.23.A.E CAR.

I understand that you are now going to be allowed to make this, as per your last memo to Sg. {Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} , and we are supplying you with the correct axle ratio.

If you are going to make the car with the radiator in the present standard height, I would recommend that you carry out a wind tunnel test on it in this condition before you construct the car.

I am particularly anxious that you should not spend a lot of time and energy on a full scale job and then find you do not get the required results. If you find that the lower radiator is imperative I do not think it would stop your customer buying the necessary radiator matrix from John Marston. As far as that goes, there are many manufacturers in France who can alter a standard radiator. I do hope, however, that you will find results are maintained in spite of the increased height of the front of the car.

You will have seen from the figures which I asked Evenden to prepare that your body, as originally planned, is equivalent in the acceleration which it produces to halving the weight of the car @ 60 m.p.h. I am, therefore, more than interested in the final results which you obtain.

I shall be circulating a memo on the general aspect of reduced windage in the immediate future.

Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer}
  
  
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).


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