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).
Modifications to the 'Vulture' engine design and comparing it with the 'Buzzard' engine for a new large chassis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 180\M2\M2.4\ img030 | |
| Date | 17th November 1920 | |
| To etc. from R.{Sir Henry Royce} Copy to Mr. [REDACTED] ORIGINAL RECEIVED E3/G17/11/20. X.3548 RE NEW LARGE CHASSIS - "VULTURE". X.3848. X.3YPC Handwritten note: fied too. The engine for this new large chassis is being modified. After months of work and years of experience we came to the conclusion that a six-cylinder engine with overhead camshaft cannot be made silent enough and simple enough to compete with our present car engine, and would have caused endless of time and difficulties on test. We have therefore been modifying our "Vulture" designs to an engine with overhead valves and push rods as the most promising solution for an engine to be superior to our present side-by-side "D" head engine. This does not affect the "Buzzard" which can go along without delay, and the modification to the "Vulture" as above will be forwarded in the course of a few days, as this will be exactly similar to the modified "Goshawk". In a push rod engine with a detachable head for the six-cylinder "Vulture" type, it would be possible for the Sales and Works to choose whether the extra virtues, if any, of the "Buzzard" engine when fitted to this new chassis, are sufficiently great to suggest that we adopt the 12 cylinder "Buzzard" engine in preference to this new "Vulture" engine having push rods. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||