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 challenges and commercial considerations of a rear spare wheel carrier versus a combined carrier and luggage grid.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\R\October1927-December1927\ Scan023 | |
| Date | 11th October 1927 | |
| ORIGINAL FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} C. to HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} REAR SPARE WHEEL CARRIER. X8600 X8400 Replying to your BJ12/E101027, the difficulty that some of the customers object to the luggage grid alters the case, and we will produce a rear wheel carrier to fulfil the conditions of no luggage grid. The difficulty appears to be that the luggage grid cannot be added without removing this type of carrier and fitting the one combined with the luggage grid, because so far we can hardly see a way where one is independent of the other. Now it will be understood that we must at the very earliest possible moment put the spare wheel at the back for the sake of the riding and steering qualities, and I can see nothing to prevent our doing so in cases where the customer requires a luggage grid. The few people objecting to the luggage grid, but who will permit us to fix the spare wheel at the back will be provided for as soon as possible by the modifications we propose to put in the designs. These I hope to have ready in a few days. Now it appears that these parts have got to be produced and paid for some way or another. Whether the customer pays the coachbuilder for something which is unsatisfactory, or pays us for something which is much more satisfactory, depends upon whether we can solve this commercial problem. We are interested that the customer shall have the best car possible for the least expenditure, and I don't know what he would have to pay the coachbuilder for a side wheel carrier, a rear wheel carrier, and a luggage grid, but I do know that we should be able, by carefully designing and standardising these fittings, to give him something much more satisfactory, and by making them in bigger quantities for less price, than could possibly be obtained from a non-engineering coachbuilder whose designs and materials, and conditions of manufacture, should be far below ours. In conclusion, I will do my best to overcome the difficulty of the customer not requiring the combined carrier and luggage grid, but for the reputation of our cars I beg of you to insist that the spare wheel shall be carried at the rear at the first possible moment, and in every possible case, otherwise I fear that the cheap American cars are on the way to beating us in riding and steering qualities. You will see how I am struggling against all kinds of difficulties to get the expensive work in designing to be of some benefit to the Company. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||