A Rolls-Royce Diesel engine????

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Now that Bentley, owned by VAG, famous for their Diesel emissions scandal engines, did come up with a SUV, the Bentayga, all we had to wait for was the availability of a Bentley Diesel. Believe it or not, but now there is a Bentley Bentayga Diesel. You wonder, can it get worse? A Rolls-Royce with a Diesel engine? Would that be the end of civilization? Well, have I got news for you: Rolls-Royce already produced Diesel engines. In 1930 and from 1951 until 1988!

In 1930, one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine, Sir Harry Ricardo, developped a Diesel variant of the Rolls Royce V12 Kestrel aero engine. This engine helped the land speed record breaking car ‘Flying Spray’ (f.k.a. Speed of the Wind) set a new diesel speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats, 159 mph, a record that would stand until 1950.

After the war, building luxury cars did not fit with the new mood of postwar retrenchment. After starting design and development of what became their C series diesel engine range in 1948, Rolls-Royce began to produce diesel engines in 1951.

Initially, these were intended for heavy tractors and bulldozers, but later they were installed in lorries, railcars and Sentinel industrial locomotives. The railcar engines were often used with Twin Disc torque converters which were built by Rolls-Royce under licence from the Twin Disc Clutch Company of the USA. In 1956, Rolls-Royce Limited took over Sentinel's Shrewsbury factory and moved the production of diesel engines to Shrewsbury.

The range of diesel engines included:
- C range: 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines with power output from 100 to 450 bhp. Used in generating sets, compressors etc, construction equipment, railway and other industrial purposes and marine propulsion.
- Eagle: a modified version of the C range 6-cylinder engine named Eagle is used in heavy vehicles, their output 200 to 300 bhp.
- D range: V engines with outputs from 400 to 750 bhp for generating sets, marine and railway applications.

Users of Rolls Royce Engines were Alvis (military vehicles), Foden (trucks & busses), International Harvester (trucks), Scammell (lorries), Sentinel and Vickers.

In 1998 Perkins took over Rolls Royce Engines, to form Perkins engines (Shrewsbury) Ltd., which is now a subsidiary of Caterpillar.

May be it is a comforting thought, that if in a year or two there will be a Rolls-Royce available with a Diesel engine, it still will be part of their Heritage.

Text: Marius Hille Ris Lambers (Onestop Photo)
Photo courtesy: Grace's Guide to British Industrial History (http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/)
Picture of the 1930 Rolls-Royce Ricardo engine: sv1ambo (CC 2.0 Generic license)

Originally published: Tuesday February 21st, 2017

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