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).
Rear engines, streamlining, and the importance of the power-to-weight ratio for acceleration in city traffic.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img155 | |
| Date | 17th June 1933 guessed | |
| 7. Rear engines would be a great help in getting rid of the vast hole in the front of the frame made by a 16 cyl. engine with unit transmission. Some way to bridge this gap effectively seems essential. You have at least the dashboard, but we lack even that. Streamlining. The big cars appear to have the advantage of better ratio of length to frontal area. The tail seems the biggest single step. Then the front fenders. A frame line lower to the ground is a big help in getting head room without wind resistance. Since we must have a certain standard of acceleration from stop lights and the contest in this respect gets more bitter year after year, streamlining will not allow us to use smaller engines. The crowd of cars waiting at a stop light is a major problem today. Some are old & decrepit. There are trucks. There is a leavening of high performance cars. Cities like Detroit permit 35 and work at 45 on main boulevards. The first up to speed keeps ahead of the field and saves himself delay, annoyance & damaged fenders. The power-weight ratio governs this rather than streamlining. | ||