Series of observations and requested changes for the Wraith II Bodies design, specifically LeC.5290.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 7\5\ X 604 Body-page027 | |
| Date | 1st November 1936 | |
| 604 holed Rem/ko F.D000 File S/N. H.R. Mr. L. Da. {Bernard Day - Chassis Design} Mr. Ev. {Ivan Evernden - coachwork} Mr. C. End Hse. CX {Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} 4/TRG.11.36. Wraith II Bodies. BYRV2/MMcB.10.36. We have now studied the design LeC.5290, and we should like to make the following observations - (1) That this body be equipped with the new Park Ward division, which instead of dropping into a panel at the back of the front seat goes up into the roof, as we wish to have the advantage of the extra room inside gained by this arrangement. (2) The headroom over the back seat cushion compressed is shown as 36". We do not consider this adequate and are of the opinion that there should be at least another inch here, but whether you propose to obtain this or part of it by raising the roof or lowering the seat cushions we do not know. Incidentally on your previous design of this car LeC.5182 the headroom is shown as 37.5" and we should therefore be interested to know your reason for reducing this by 1½". (3) We hope you have obtained the maximum slope on the front door leading edge to give the best entrance to the front seats. We have in mind what is being attempted on the wider entrance Bentley, and feel that every ½" at this point should be gained. We appreciate that the position of the spare wheel governs this very much but hope in connection with that that the spare wheel is put as far forward as possible and as high as you feel is justified in order to give every possible benefit here. Certainly on the drawing the dotted line of the spare wheel does not show very much free space. (4) We consider that with the extra 2" to be gained by the new Park Ward division window the position of the front seat should be as far back as possible, making this car comfortable for a tall long legged person to drive, and that the driving seat should be adjustable for the shorter person, such as we have in the P.III Barker Touring Limousine. We feel now that some commencement should be made on a third type of body for Wraith, and that it should take the form of a full-sized Saloon, i.e. an improved edition of the present standard Barker Saloon on the 25/30. We take (contd) | ||
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).