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).
Steering tests for a 40/50 car fitted with a front axle and disc wheels.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 28\4\ Scan210 | |
| Date | 1st April 1924 | |
| R.R. 403A (40 H) (SL 42 12-7-23). J.H.,D.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} EXPERIMENTAL REPORT. +457 Expl. No. REF:Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}6/LGL.4.24. STEERING. Y3165 X457 To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to CJ. RG.{Mr Rowledge} c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} We have been testing a 40/50 car fitted with front axle and disc wheels which enables us to have true centre-point vertical pivots. The axle was adjusted so that the pivots were vertical with normal load. This meant no castoring. We first tried it with no buffer springs in the side steering rod. The steering, generally, with this combination, was poor. Owing to the pivots being vertical in all planes, there was very little friction, and the steering was very free and light. Also, owing to the fact that there was no castoring action, it was unstable. Apart from these faults however, we still got definite road shocks on the steering. The shocks on the wheel were worse than the present standard 40/50 without front wheel brakes. We tried the car again under the same condition except with plain thrust on both steering pivots, with std. buffer springs fitted in the side steering rod, and standard backward lean on the pivots. This improved the steering generally but road shocks were severe. During both these tests we also tried reversing the disc wheels i.e., having them dished outward which made the steering 3" or 4" off centre-point. Over a bad road the steering appeared to be better under this condition. The road shocks were no more severe than with centre-point and they appeared to be more equally damped. contd:- | ||