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).
Letter to a supplier discussing modifications to bumper bars and steering wheels.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\4\ scan0142 | |
| Date | 31th August 1941 | |
| 1021 31st August, 1941. Ex.1/H/7. C. BREEDEN, Esq., Messrs. Wilmot-Breeden, Ltd., Eastern Works, Camden Street, BIRMINGHAM. Dear Breeden, Thank you for your letter of 29th August. I must admit that we have not done a great deal since your last visit, but we occasionally have lapses of this nature, owing to the pressure of other work. We always, however, return to the car job refreshed. BUMPER BARS. - Our main objection to the excellent bumper bar, the appearance of which we approved during your last visit, is its weight. It is just twice as heavy as the bumper which we approved just before the war. We shall be sending you a drawing showing the lightest bumper of this type which we think would be a practical proposition. We should like to have your comments on it, particularly as regards the difficulty of making it a production proposition. We have purposely erred on the side of making it too light, with the intention of going to an intermediate stage if we find that it is too flimsy. As we told you during our last meeting, we want the main bar to be tempered, even though it may increase the cost slightly. In addition to this modified design of Rolls-Royce bumper bar, we are submitting the design of another bumper bar, which is basically the same, but modified in detail to suit the Myth appearance. We should be glad if you would make one of these up, so that we can judge it on the car. STEERING WHEELS. - We had a good discussion round the steering wheel, and see no objection to the suggestion shown on your drawing RR.6309. We cannot, however, see any mention of a letter A.{Mr Adams}, which you quote in your letter, and presume that you must have marked up a print which was not sent. We found that the wooden model had a ring which was the wrong shape, and we have prepared a large scale section of this, showing where you have gone wrong. We think hexagonal spokes look nicer than square spokes, but that they must have considerably greater section to give an equal appearance of solidity. We think that we should try an aluminium and a cast iron centre, to get a true value of strength, weight and ease of manufacture. When you receive our new design, we should like another model made up, this time to a centre to the cast iron dimensions, and having approved of this, we can go ahead with the rear wheels. | ||