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).
The causes and potential solutions for high-speed steering wobble, a recently observed issue.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 182\M16\ img048 | |
| Date | 11th August 1920 | |
| R.R. 255A.100 T.(S.H. 152) 11-8-20: G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} 2890 (2) Particulars of this will be sent you today, and the designs for the hydraulic damper will be sent this week. In the meantime we are assuming that you are fitting up temporarily a Houdaille damper, after having cancelled the valves, and the central clearance if provided with it. In conclusion, we are assuming that the above will make our steering less affected (also driver feels less) from the following sources:- (a) road shocks, (b) potholes, (c) low speed wobbles, (d) high speed wobbles, & (e) taking charge when cornering. It remains to be seen whether each modification justifies itself, and does not introduce other harmful features, and whether we have done enough to consider that our steering is entirely satisfactory. It will be understood that the high speed steering wobble is to us quite a recent phenomenon. We had never heard of it until an attempt was made to use balloon tyres for high speed work. We believe however that in our case it is more prevalent because of the extra weightof the front axle, and of the front of the car, lower pressure tyres carrying great load, and the cord tyres having less internal damping. There is just the odd possibility that we have relatively some additional flexibility to the front of the chassis, and DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} has sent you particulars to test to see whether this has any influence on high speed wobbles. At the same time we do consider that in addition to the influence caused by the lean of the pivot and the tyre pressure, that the weight of the front axle alone, | ||