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).
Chassis issues, frame jellying, engine mounting solutions, and known faults in cars destined for America.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 182\M19\ img120 | |
| Date | 23th February 1931 | |
| -2- car free from booms. In the case of Mr. Davies we have a customer whom we cannot satisfy, but as we can make no improvement by giving him a new chassis which has been selected the conclusion has been arrived at that the body is the chief culprit. It was agreed that we should take the other identical body and fit it on to Mr. Davies chassis and if it could be definitely tied down to a body effect we should then return it to the coachbuilders for them to attend to. We have built up another car with the Diamond mounting built to the original scheme suggested by E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} We find that when we run this as the full Diamond mounting we do entirely get rid of booms but in this car the altered engine mounting produces bad frame jellying. It has a centrally mounted radiator, the wings and lamps shake more than could ever be tolerated. Also some of our previous springing tests have proved that frame jellying will spoil the riding. Another point against the Diamond mounting is that with side spare wheels these flap about owing to the frame not being sufficiently supported. To sum up the position it seems probable that with the Diamond mounting we should be back in trouble with frame jellying. We have also got to make provision to prevent side spare wheels flapping. Running with the front engine feet only has been remarkably successful on one car but has not been confirmed on two others which have been tried. This scheme also leaves us with no proper support for spare wheels at the side. 58-GN. car with the front feet only was tried at St.{Capt. P. R. Strong} Albans and everyone was convinced of the definite improvement. This car was left for Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} to use. 28-WX. car which had an exactly similar engine mounting to 58-GN. was tried and it was agreed that this was bad for booms. The question of dispatching left-hand chassis to America was discussed, because Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} had raised the point that careful consideration ought to be given before we sent cars to U.S.A. with known faults. These are (1) Booms & Vibrations, (2) Shock absorbers likely to give trouble with knocks (3) Power inferior to U.S.A. Phantom I's at low speeds. | ||