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).
From a Sales Conference about the problem of noisy car bodies and a plan to investigate how body design accentuates chassis noise.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 41\3\ Scan227 | |
| Date | 8th December 1922 | |
| X/3730 To ERS. from BJ. Copies to C.L. W.O. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} NOISY BODIES. I think we agreed as follows at the last Sales Conference:- The Goshawk will undoubtedly be criticised considerably by the public, and as we are launching an entirely new car and making an entirely new business, it is very essential that we should leave no stone unturned to reduce this criticism to a minimum. We have reached a very important point, namely, that a chassis which the Works consider has the quietest axle and exhaust they can give us for the present, when fitted with our standard limousine body, produces a quite impossible car, namely, one which we could not sell without seriously injuring our reputation. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} has tried this and agrees the noise is excessive and that everything possible should be done at Derby to make the chassis quieter. We all appreciate that a body by itself is not noisy, but the noises are produced by the chassis. The chassis noises, however, can be considerably accentuated or decreased according to the design of the body. For instance, a chassis when fitted with a touring body may possibly be quiet. The same body, when fitted with a limousine, may be impossibly noisy. Whilst W. are endeavouring to produce a quieter chassis, every effort should be made by London to ascertain what is the cause, and if there is a cure, for bodies which accentuate chassis noises. For instance, we might take a chassis and fit: (a) A touring body, and agree that the chassis was reasonably quiet. (b) We might then place on the chassis a limousine body, without windows and without a roof, and still find that the chassis is reasonably quiet. (c) We might then add windows, and everything up as high as the roof, and ascertain whether the chassis is still reasonably quiet. | ||