4 AUGUST 1939, Page 32

The " Wraith " Rolls-Royce The lesser Rolls-Royce is one

of those cars with a history, a career which it is an education in motoring to follow. When it put in a first appearance, somewhere about 1923 or 1924, it had a 3-litre zo h.p. engine, a three-speed gear-box, and, if I am right, cantilever suspension. Today its engine is a 41-litre, of 3o h.p., and it resembles its forbear only in the familiar shape of its radiator. If you want to see how first-grade British design went forward from those not very " clever " years of the early 'twenties to today, you will find the answer in the small Rolls-Royces of the past fifteen years, beginning with the Twenty, which had no four-wheel brakes (or only as an £8o extra) and a three-speed gear-box, and ending with the 1939 model, which has one of the most successful synchromesh boxes made, and the latest of every- thing, including independent front-wheel suspension and perhaps the most scientifically planned brake-system there is.