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).
Design reasons for using a separate gearbox in the Phantom III.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 94\2\ scan0098 | |
| Date | 3rd December 1936 | |
| Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} Hdy.{William Hardy} E.2/HP.3.12.36. Phantom III Gearbox. Referring to your memo Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}15/E.27.11.36, the following are the reasons why we went to a separate gearbox when laying down the designs for Phantom III. Some of these reasons may no longer be tenable, due to the passage of time and development which has since taken place. It will also be appreciated that a separate gearbox would not have been incorporated without general agreement. So far as we remember it was advocated more by the Experimental Department than anybody but was seized on by the Design as a means of getting in certain structural features, which they consider desirable. (1) Engine Suspension. It was advocated that the engine and gearbox should be separated to allow the former full freedom of movement for the elastic mounting without rattling the change speed mechanism, and incidentally without having to bring full gearbox torque to bear on the engine mounting. Since then the difficulty of gear lever shake has been overcome in another way by using Hardy's scheme of change mechanism. (2) Accessibility of Clutch. We believe the records show that a strong demand for greater accessibility to the clutch on a big car like the Phantom was put up from Sales. This feature must have been of considerable use to us during Phantom III development. (3) Coupling between Engine and Gearbox. P.I had a separate gearbox with a rubber and fabric coupling incorporated in the drive from the engine to smooth out vibration. When P.II was designed with unit | ||