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).
Axle design modifications, specifically pivot placement and toe-in, to address high-speed steering wobble.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\N\October1925-December1925\ Scan140 | |
| Date | 11th December 1925 | |
| R.R. 235A (100 T) (S.H. 159, 11-8-20) G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} 2800 TO HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} FROM DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} HIGH SPEED STEERING WOBBLES. [Handwritten]: x457 78420 [alongside a struck-through number: +8430] With reference to HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}1/LG81225., it will of course have occurred to you that the effect of arranging the axle to give you approximately 1.6 inside centre point is to produce a sort of permanent toe-in which tends to increase with wear. The result of your experiments previously was that toe-in was a distinct disadvantage. There seems to be some doubt therefore whether this experiment can be taken as definitely condemning the axle with the pivot in the plane of the wheel. In the new axle we have designed we have got the pivot rather nearer the plane of the wheel, though this was not the primary object of the design, the [handwritten and struck-through word: feature] we were trying to produce being to make the pivot as upright as possible, the distance between the plane of the wheel and the pivot being obtained by putting the wheel out of centre-point. Do you consider that this arrangement is likely to prove worse than the present axle from the high speed steering wobble point of view? It should make the steering easier, and incidentally, as it stands, take some friction off the pivot bearings. DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} [Signature] | ||