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).
Comparison of steering performance between two experimental cars, 1 EX and 6 EX, noting stability and handling on crowned roads.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 183\M22\ img183 | |
| Date | 23th August 1920 | |
| To MS: from R.{Sir Henry Royce} Copy to Con: " " SUN: " " DA{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}: " " DIV: " " EPO: ORIGINAL X.3763a RE STEERING - 1 EX. COMPARED WITH 6 EX. V.963 (Handwritten below: X.3923a) (Stamped over "COMPARED WITH 6 EX.": RECEIVED) (Handwritten on stamp: X.3791 / X.3791a) It will be remembered that both these cars are fitted with a plain thrust washer on one of the front pivots, with the object of producing a certain amount of damping friction to render the steering more stable, but 1 EX. has got the old form of springing in the longitudinal tube, whereas 6 EX. has got set up single springs on each ball. There appeared little difference in the behaviour of these cars at high speeds on the various roads tested, and from some points of view my impression was that 1 EX. was rather better than 6 EX. because one felt rather less the unevenness of the roads. I could not detect any corresponding disadvantage from this. One could imagine, however, that the control of the leading road wheels was slightly better in the case of 6 EX. and in case of steering wobbles there may be considerable difference in the two arrangements, but I did not experience any such short-comings in the steering. The only difficulty I found in steering at high speeds was on some of the narrow Norfolk roads which are very much crowned, the car being somewhat unstable under such conditions, but in this case the actual road track was only very little wider than the car track, and the curvature was very great, my impression being that it was something like a belt running on a hollow pulley instead of a crowned. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||