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).
Impressions from a motor show, covering competitors, engine, gearbox, and suspension technologies.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179\1\ img031 | |
| Date | 20th October 1931 | |
| SC. FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} ORIGINAL R1/W20.10.31. C. to WeH. HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} C. to BR.{T. E. Bellringer - Repair Manager} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} IA. IMPRESSIONS FROM THE MOTOR SHOW. Naturally one can see danger from several sources. The chief among them seem to be Lancaster and Invicta. At the same time one could not see any signs of attempts at anti-vibration 6 cyl. engine mountings. This is definitely in our favour as regards luxury carriages. There is a tendency however to use more than 6 cyls., apparently with the chief object of avoiding vibrations which are communicated to the coachwork, (especially in the almost universal enclosed motorcar.) So as regards 6 cyls. the competition need not be feared other than on the score of price. As regards easy change gears there seems little attempt at anything except the Wilson gearbox, with or without the fluid flywheel. We have heard that the fluid flywheel is not considered an unmixed blessing as regards heavy work. We are rather inclined to think that the friction held gears may prove objectionable. As regards synchro mesh there are only a few specimens of this in the show although we think it is extremely valuable, and our own version compared with 2 or 3 others appears to be somewhat superior. As regards suspension there is marked progress towards independent springing. We cannot see very much advantage in this except in the case of the steering wheels which we would like to keep revolving in exactly the same plane so as to lessen the unpleasant joggles on the steering wheel, and should probably get a straighter running car. Actually we cannot see that there is very much in the riding qualities due to independently sprung wheels, but we can see that there is much advantage in preventing the gyrostatic phenomenon of the steering wheels. I am therefore letting IA. produce a design of our version of an independently sprung front axle. We hope that this will be good enough to produce experimentally in a month or so. (Quite a patentable scheme.) (1) | ||