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).
Analysis of a car's unconventional suspension, steering, and racing performance.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\S\September1928-October1928\ Scan165 | |
| Date | 16th October 1928 guessed | |
| contd :- -6- with RR. cars, but at the moment there is no big car with a good unconventional suspension. It would offer considerable opportunity for an experimental investigation with regard to compound rating coil springing. The car is cheap - £500 for a closed 8-cyl. model. HK.{Col. T. Harker - Sales} considers he could re-sell fairly easily if we were interested. The Co. have already sold cars to the Minerva Co. and others for investigation. STEERING. The layout as we have already pointed out is original. The steering is heavy for the size of the car. It is, however, not absolutely irreversible. It is absolutely immune from road reaction, and at no speed could we observe any inclination for the front wheels to 'tramp'. Mr. Harris, their Managing Director, states that they have run pivots with ball bearing thrust races and never had any signs of a wobble. We could not detect any ill effects from the varying pivot lean. TRACTA. This car has been designed, manufactured and sold by a racing enthusiast. It gives, as one would expect, a remarkably low driving and body position. The steering is good. Otherwise the main selling points of the car appear to be its capabilities of cornering considerably faster than a normal car provided it is accelerated while do so, which, considering modern traffic conditions, is a somewhat doubtful asset. No advantage appears to have been taken of the opportunities afforded for improving the suspension, which is hard and uncomfortable at low speeds. All sorts of noises from the gearbox and transmission invade the driving seat. This car has won many road racing and track successes during the past season. contd :- | ||