Urgent need to introduce adjustable shock dampers due to customer complaints and competitor offerings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 56\1\ Scan205 | |
| Date | 8th July 1932 | |
| To R. {Sir Henry Royce} from Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. Sg. {Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor. {Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. E. {Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} De. c. W. Hdy. {William Hardy} (W.W.) X-235. Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} 6/AD8.7.32. ADJUSTABLE SHOCK DAMPERS It would be a pity if our interest in new models allowed our bread and butter products to suffer. We consider that some form of ride control (adjustable damping) is long overdue. It is most urgent and is the biggest improvement we could possibly fit to any of our cars. This is brought home to us at Derby where we have a continuous stream of customers' complaints on springing. Quite a number of these customers have for some time owned other makes of cars which are fitted with adjustable dampers which makes it very difficult for us to satisfy them. A large number of Rolls-Royce owners are having Hartford adjustable dampers fitted to their cars so that they can have some degree of control. We have got the fully automatic governor control dampers which at present are in the D.O. being detailed, but we think the fully automatic scheme, combined as it is with the new type damper, is a long way off. From Hancock's report on the Alpine roads, it will be observed that the conditions demanded maximum damping although the car speed was low. Therefore the automatic control would not satisfy those conditions unless it was fitted with an over-riding hand control. The adjustable dampers have to be accepted now as an accomplished fact. They are being fitted as standard on to so many cars that one can no longer say that they are impossible or that they will not work. We have had one of our own 25 HP. cars running for nearly 12 months with adjustable dampers which give a very definite over-riding control and which we produced from our present standard damper by applying an adjustable leak. We have now, we believe, arrived at a reliable trouble-free R.R. damper. We very much dislike the idea of throwing it away and starting on another job. We trust the job as being too urgent to wait until we have perfected the new damper plus the automatic control. We are certain that we should please a tremendous lot of our customers and make a better car if and have less complaints if we adopted a modest scheme to begin with of hand control dampers which could be followed with the automatic scheme. Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||
From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).