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).
New Phantom handling issues compared to the Silver Ghost, focusing on weight, chassis flexibility, steering, and tyre balance.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 28\4\ Scan296 | |
| Date | 18th August 1925 guessed | |
| contd :- -4- tube and the damper lever. We cannot understand why New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I is worse than Silver Ghost, but naturally it is (1) somewhat heavier forward, (2) it is more top heavy forward which may be bad (Silver Ghost can have suitable weight added at high centre of gravity), (3) the New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I chassis may be more flexible forward - (this we have instructed you to test). As soon as you get hold of the lower geared steering and the box with the larger nut, you should be in a position to tell us if these have any definite advantages as regards the wobbles and shocks getting to the driver. It seems that we must cater for people having tyres at low pressure, and fitting balloon tyres, and personally, I shall keep the two cars here at 20 lbs. per sq.in. for the Goshawk lll. balloons, and 40 lbs./sq.in. for the New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I ordinary cord Dunlops. It is very possible that Michelins and other first class makes of tyres are better balanced than these defective Dunlops. We must expect a certain amount of out of balance and make that our limit, but I do not expect anyone will suggest that we ought to run with an unreasonable out of balance. Probably for racing, and for big Bentley the tyres are properly balanced. (A gauge sent out by Dunlops - for Gos.lll. - was found to read about half the real pressure - possibly kilos.per sq.in. instead of lbs.per sq.in.) R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||