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).
Article from 'The Motor' magazine about post-war inspiration, discussing the Bentley V motorcar and the rebuilding of cities.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0296 | |
| Date | 16th April 1941 | |
| The Motor 212 April 16, 1941. POST WAR INSPIRATION FEW things give more pleasure to an economic mind than the destruction of two ornithological specimens with a single missile. Such good fortune was recently my lot. I was able to investigate two matters which, I believe, are of some interest and, indeed, importance to readers of The Motor at one and the same time. They concern what, I can say, will be one of the most important of Britain's contributions to British post-war engineering, viz., the Bentley V on the one hand, and the rebuilding of devastated cities in the post-war years on the other. Let me explain, first, about the motorcar. Readers may remember that when some experienced motorists and I took the car out on the road we found that although it was capable of approximately 90 m.p.h., between 70-80 m.p.h. was the most that could be usefully employed. Hence we formed the impression that the car was outstanding as a high-speed model but could not be counted one of the fastest on the road, an honour definitely, in our view at that time, reserved for the Corniche variation. I did not know that when I put these thoughts into print that the car had been timed on the Continent to do close on 100 m.p.h. This figure seemed to indicate that all was not quite perfect with the car as originally tested. It later transpired that owing to the whole energies of the Derby factory being now concentrated on war work an error had crept into the carburetter setting which, although slight in itself, had made a very appreciable difference to the performance of the car. A correction having been carried out made it possible for me to combine a re-check on the running of the car with an investigation into an aspect of post-war building that has not yet received sufficient attention. Three weeks ago there appeared in The Motor an interesting account of the projected post-war Coventry. In this plan, new roads, residential centres, shopping centres, theatre centres and so on are marked out and obviously, as this city is amongst the three worst sufferers from enemy devastation, the opportunities for such regrouping are unusually good. Even so, the city architect realizes that much of the proposed sites are, at present, covered by modern and, so far, intact constructions and, therefore, the complete rebuilding, as envisaged, can only take place over a long period of years—in this case, up to a century is the time in mind. It will, therefore, be seen that even in the worst cases the opportunities for large-scale rebuilding are very limited and for the great majority of “blitzed” towns appear (unless the effects of aerial warfare become more severe than anything we now know) as being no more than that of how to fit in new buildings or new portions of streets to older structures. In these circumstances, what is the best policy in the style of architecture to be followed? Some, including Mr. Faraday, the Recorder of Bideford, who has put his views in our correspondence columns, feel that all historic buildings, such as the Temple, should be rebuilt exactly to the old plans. This, of course, is the exact contrary of the Coventry objective of pulling down the existing buildings and making a wholly new city. Many take a mid-way view between these extremes. It seems logical to keep what we have and where rebuilding is necessary not to imitate past A FIVE-CENTURY COMPARISON — At the Universities, buildings representing widely different variations in architecture may be seen. One of the greatest gaps of time at Cambridge is between the Gothic of King's Chapel (above, left), and the Great Tower of the new University Library, designed by Sir Giles Scott and only recently completed, shown right. A12 | ||