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).
The design principles for a streamlined car body, focusing on passenger space, aerodynamics, and driver safety.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 24\1\ Scan038 | |
| Date | 12th December 1931 guessed | |
| 4. is to obtain maximum passenger space between the axles, combined with a minimum overall length in a car limited by these over-riding conditions. The first deduction is that a tapering tail necessitates the rear passengers being moved as far forward as possible, and, consequently the engine must be moved from the front of the car to the rear, as part of the space now occupied by the engine is required as passenger space, unless the overall length of the car is to be unduly increased. The driver, however, must be close to the windscreen and there must not be too much angle on the windscreen if the best conditions of visibility in dirty weather are to be obtained, and in combination with this requirement is the necessity from the physicological point of view of giving three feet or so of buffer to protect the driver in the event of a head on crash. These two conditions fix the position of the driver and the windscreen. Neither are incompatible with good streamlining. We are now in a position to lay down certain determining points upon the outline drawing of a streamline car, taking as part of our basis the passenger accomodation required, and that it must lie wholly between the axles. [Handwritten in margin]: psycological [Handwritten insertion]: to [Diagram Text] A : BUFFER A' : GRACE PASSENGER SPACE -> B. WIND SCREEN E MAXIMUM HEIGHT C HEAD ROOM D.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} Fig.3. Taking Fig. 111, the points A.B.C.D and E, are fixed by aerodynamic and passenger considerations, and it will, I think, be found that the variations in the smooth curve connecting these points will give but little variation | ||