Some Rolls-Royce individualities

The Rolls-Royce has three independent foot brake systems, so that if one fails the driver still has both front and back brakes. Trailing shoes at the front and equal wearing shoes at the back operate on 11 1/4 in. x 3 in. drums and are applied via a gearbox-driven servo motor. The front/rear ratio is so arranged that the front wheels cannot lock when reversing downhill. Rolls-Royce claim that the car can be stopped once a minute from 70 m.p.h. until the linings are worn out, without fade, and that the servo makes you seven times the man you are.

There is a fully-fused electrical system for the 12-volt 67-amp.-hr. negative-earthed electrical system.

Care is taken to avoid gritty switches. Each of the heating and ventilation controls operates its respective tap through an electric servo. The main switchbox is scrupulously engineered and in principle departs very little from the Silver Ghost’s counterpart. The starter motor is not connected directly to the driver’s switch; Rolls-Royce use a second relay to tell the first relay to tell the starter to engage.

The pedals are the same distance from the steering wheel as they were on the Silver Ghost.

A satisfactory tick-over is maintained even after prolonged Motorway driving because the engineering of the throttle linkage to the S. U. HD8 carburetters has received a lot of attention and because the engine will stand several hundred hours at full-throttle without distortion of the exhaust valves.

The steering geometry is set while the car is moved through its lull suspension range, which is the only method of ensuring that errors are negligible in the normal position of the front suspension.

The screen-wiper blades park tidily, and their blades are then warmed by the demister. To contribute to silent running the exhaust system has three separate stainless-steel expansion chambers each tuned to absorb different sound frequencies, and the pressed-steel body is so fully insulated from the chassis that the only direct connection between the two is the speedometer cable, Rolls-Royce Ltd. claim that their cars have thicker chromium plate and finer leather than any other car in the World. The body has a dozen coats of paint and primer.

(See also “A Visit to Rolls-Royce”—MOTOR SPORT March 1965.)