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).
Letter to Maurice Olley of Vauxhall Motors discussing oversteer, understeer, and skid-pan testing results.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\3\ img144 | |
| Date | 5th January 1938 | |
| RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/IMW.{Ivan M. Waller - Head of Chateauroux}1/EH. Oy. 5th. January 1938. Maurice Olley, Esq., Messrs. Vauxhall Motors Ltd., Luton, BEDS. Dear Mr.Olley, Grylls is at present very deep in gearboxes so has asked me to return the Oldsmobile curves and thank you for your letter of December 29th. The part about 'lanes', 'natural', 'high' and 'low', has given us a lot to think about, in trying to reconcile apparent differences between steering angle curves taken on the flat and on our 5° banking. We have been unable to do much Skid-pan work lately on account of the weather and Christmas. When Grylls first went to America you showed him a paper which included a tabulated list of conditions which promoted oversteer or understeer. Under oversteer was 'over-run' and under understeer was 'drive'. Do you recollect the basis of these views and how you came to change them? Grylls has demonstrated on the Skid-pan how closing the throttle on an oversteering car at maximum cornering speed causes the tail to come right round, and attributed this to an increased rear slip angle when traction was reversed. The effect does not seem to occur with an understeering car. | ||