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).
Magazine article detailing the history, design, and specifications of the unconventional Burney Streamline car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 24\1\ Scan076 | |
| Date | 1st December 1991 guessed | |
| VETERAN TO CLASSIC The Burney Streamline in prototype form with its recessed headlamps and straight-eight Beverley-Barnes engine. Forgotten Makes: The Burney Streamline When it made its debut late in 1930, the Burney Streamline created a more than mild sensation, even though it was never to achieve full production status. It was the creation of Commander Sir C Dennistoun Burney, Bt{Capt. J. S. Burt - Engineer}, KMG, who had been responsible for the airship R100. Although this Rolls-Royce-engined 3900hp airship flew a total of 14,956 air-miles, was capable of a speed of nearly 60mph, and had successfully journeyed to Canada and back to Britain, the Vickers-built ship was scrapped (literally steam-rollered) by Government decree after the ill-fated Beardmore-engined Barnes Wallis-designed R101 had crashed at Allone, Beauvais, in France on a flight to India in October 1930, killing most of those on board, including the Labour Secretary of State for Air, Lord Thomson of Cardington. Those who crave full details of the ill-fated R101 should read the wonderfully detailed book "To Ride The Storm" by Sir Peter C Masefield (William Kimber, 1982), which I highly recommend. Divested of his airship ambitions, Burney turned to the creation of an advanced design of private car, using streamlining to reduce drag and so improve performance for a given power and petrol consumption. In this he was re-creating in a more modern concept the ideas behind such cars as the rear-engined German Rumpler of 1921 and the radial-engined North Lucas (see MOTOR SPORT, March 1991). He asserted that even the exposed headlamps on the modern car absorbed seven bhp at a speed of 80mph, and claimed that his unusual Burney Streamline aimed at substantially reducing such extravagant power losses. Apart from that, Sir Dennis was after better weight distribution and suspension than was incorporated in most 1930s cars. He had begun to work on these lines in the airship shed at Howden in Yorkshire in 1928, using a 12/75hp FWD Alvis chassis turned back-to-front, with its steering locked, and its back-axle replaced by one with steering pivots. As finally evolved, the Burney Streamline was most certainly unconventional. The chassis was ordinary enough, being a channel-section frame tapered at each end, but this was supplemented by a pair of steel girders running the full length of the car, braced by cross-girders, with aircraft-type wire bracing tensioned by strainers, between the cross-members. There was a metal undershield, flat and unbroken, to improve streamlining. Where the Burney differed from the majority of other cars of its time was in having independent suspension front and back, of axle-less design, with a single transverse front leaf spring and two slightly-staggered transverse cantilever springs at the back controlling the movement of the independently mounted wheels. Each front wheel was also independently steered, by means of a duplicated track-rod connected to the Bishop cam-gear. This steering layout gave a 50-deg lock and a turning circle of only 39 feet, in spite of the Burney having a 12 ft 5 in wheelbase, so that it could compete with a taxi in turning round in confined spaces. Moreover, both front wheels retained a vertical rolling motion over the full left and right lock. The front track was five feet, that at the rear 4 ft 8 in. The engine was at the back, this being a key aspect of the design, to obtain the required low wind-drag. It stuck out of the sloping tail, its cover louvred to extract air, ahingeing up and over onto the rear window of the faired bodywork, making the engine easily accessible. This engine-cover was light and easy to open. The engine was behind the place normally occupied by a back-axle and drove forward to a four-speed gearbox controlled by a long central gear-lever, with a ratcheted hand brake to the left of it. There was a direct-drive third speed, the ratios being 4.0, 5.2, 8.6 and 14.5 to 1 with a 14.0 to 1 reverse gear. The aforesaid independent springing used parallel articulated rods to locate the wheels and these rods had Silentbloc bushes to obviate the need for lubrication. The sloping tail of the fabric-covered body had two rear windows and the undershield ran right to the tail, which enclosed the silencer, number plate and the rear lamps. Ground clearance was some 9 1/2 inches. The engine was cooled by twin radiators mounted one at each side, just ahead of it, drawing air from scoops over the back mudguards, two belt-driven fans forcing the air through the honeycomb. The drive between rear engine and gearbox was by a MOTOR SPORT, DECEMBER 1991 1153 | ||