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 design, including details on the suspension, steering, engine, and overall construction.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\S\September1928-October1928\ Scan163 | |
| Date | 16th October 1928 guessed | |
| contd :- -4- supported therefrom through bell cranked levers having about 4/1 ratio as shewn in the attached sketches. These levers are mounted in Timken taper roller bearings. Each spring consists of an inner and outer coil. The inner one is varied to adjust the suspension for different types of body work. Each spring is controlled on the rebound only by a Lovejoy shock absorber contained in the tube. The manufacturers give the weight of one tubular side member as 33 lbs. Under the tube is a tie rod, but its disposition would not seem to give it much chance of being effective. Owing to the arrangement of the front crank levers, it will be clear that the pivot lean varies with the spring deflection. The pivots are set with considerable backward lean in the normal load position. Thus they can never lean forwards. The steering layout is interesting, the steering box being in the centre of the chassis behind the radiator (see sketch). The crown wheel casing is high, this reduces the angle at which the driving shafts work. The universal joints employed on these shafts are of the block type and rather excessively heavy. A conventional 8-cyl. engine is fitted with normal gearbox and Lockheed brakes. Considering the small resources of the firm, the whole chassis gives one the impression of being surprisingly well made and designed. It weighs about 20 cwts., the wheel supporting levers necessarily being a considerable item as we were told by the makers that they weighed 20 lbs. each. The two features of interest in the performance of the car were (a) The suspension. (b) The steering. The initial deflection on all springs was given contd :- | ||