George Mowat-Brown wrote:
>
> Dear Richard,
>
> I stand corrected, the source of this information was the Rover press
> office in Warwick!!
I think both Joan Penning (the secretary of the RREC-Ox. Newsletter, who
wrote the article) and the press office could be right. The Silver
Seraph body is "assembled" at Crewe (does that mean welded?)
(http://www.rolls-royceandbentley.co.uk/releases/words4.html), and thus
by "a Vickers subsidiary". The Bentley bodies are to the best of my
understanding still made at Cowley. At the time of the Club tour, the
last Spirit-derived Rolls-Royce bodies (e.g., Dawns and Spurs) would
still have been made at Cowley.
As regards the gearbox - I don't think I have anything further of use to
add. Part of the problem may be that the linkage is so remote, and the
sound/vibration-proofing so good, that all manner of mechanical mayhem
may be going on in the box while the driver remains blissfully unaware
of it. The proof of the pudding will be in the opening of the box. Who
said Pandora?
While I am not keen on the idea of BMW taking over RR&BMC (they are
already too influential in British car manufacture, viz., the fiasco at
the launch of the new Mini) it is richly ironic that their main rivals
are Volkswagen. Hitler's "people's car" taking over (part of) the
company that powered the Spitfire and Hurricane? Uf! (BTW, there is no
jingoism here - I'm not a Brit - but the irony is inescapable.)
Does anyone have stories about Spirits 'failing to proceed'? One of the
attractions of the car for me is that (I hoped) apart from the
intromission of combustible fluid and a service every 6,000 miles, the
mechanics would be neither seen nor heard. If this is not so, and if
anyone knows of specific failings, I'd be delighted to know about them.
The ailments to which a tired old Shadow may be prone are well
documented; some Spirits are getting quite elderly now, yet the RREC
bulletin and the gurus at RREC-Ox. are silent on the typical failure
mechanisms. Advice, please, gentlemen!
> The 600
> (like the 800), by the way, is assembled in Cowley, but the body pressings
> come from the factory in Swindon that also presses a lot of the Honda bits.
>
Lifting the bonnet of mine, I got the impression that only one part does
*not* originate from the land of the Rising Sun - namely, the Rover
badge... so I'm glad to hear that at least part of the car originates
more locally (end of digression on Rovers).
Desperately seeking Spirit,
richard@shears.org
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