Measuring the Royal Procession Marching Speed
A Royal Procession commonly travels at 9mph. When flanked by personnel from the armed forces, this is reduced to the normal marching speed of 120 steps per minute, equating to 3.4mph. However, most car speedometers register speeds up to and beyond 100mph and monitoring slower speeds on a standard speedometer is very difficult. This conundrum was the reason behind SMITHS designing a speedometer for the British Royal Family's Range Rover that only measured speeds between 0 and 20mph.
SMITHS Instruments have strong historical links with the Royal Family and it is believed that the first SMITHS speedometer was manufactured for King Edwards VII in 1904.
The Royal Family also has strong links with Jaguar Land Rover that date back to 1948 when her father King George VI was presented with the 100th production vehicle. In 1951, the then-Princess Elizabeth was pictured standing in an open-top Land Rover as she deputised for her father presenting the King's Colour to the Royal Air Force in London's Hyde Park. The following year, on her ascension to the throne, she took delivery of her first Land Rover and has used them ever since.
In April 2017, Jaguar Land Rover launched "The Range Rover Story" at their manufacturing plant in Solihull, Birmingham, UK. This is an interactive exhibition to celebrate 50 years of the most popular SUV in the world.
One of the sections in the exhibition is devoted to their strong historical connection with the British Royal Family. Subsequently, Jaguar Land Rover approached CAI to design and build the 0-20mph speedometer that featured in the dashboard of the Range Rover used in the Royal Procession.
CAI hold the original design records of most of the classic SMITHS gauges. The original speedometer used to measure the marching speed of the Royal Procession was remodeled by the CAI engineering team. They customised a standard speedometer, re-programming to measure the slow speed of a march. The finished gauge is authentically and classically SMITHS and is displayed in the 'Range Rover Story' exhibition.
Being able to accurately reproduce historical gauges, whilst applying modern design and programming techniques, is one of CAI's specialities. CAI are working closely with Jaguar Land Rover on projects to resurrect classic old gauges and develop new instruments for use in classic vehicles applying modern day technology.
For further information on the range of SMITHS gauges supplied for Land Rover and Classic Cars, please contact us:
Phone: +44 1639 732200
Email: [email protected]
Via the website
Posted by Paul Fears on
20 June 2017 at 12:00 AM
Tags:
JaguarJaguar Land RoverLand RoverQueenRange RoverRoyal ProcessionRoyalty
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New Technology