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).
Road test report on a Bentley saloon car's body noises and chassis torsional deflection.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 84\1\ scan0272 | |
| Date | 25th September 1934 | |
| [Handwritten]: X204 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Copy to [REDACTED] RE:- WILLS COUPE - BENTLEY B-7-AR. -------------------- I used this car on Tuesday in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, particularly taking roads which I knew had good surfaces, though very uneven - roads very equivalent to the main roads of France, neglecting special routes, such as Paris-Nice, or Paris-Deauville. Whilst the body was not good on the best main roads around London, on these roads the rattles, creaks and knocks were extremely bad. On the Kentish country lanes, driving very slowly these were still worse. A very pleasant car, under all of these conditions, was spoilt by its body noises. It was obvious that the root of the trouble lay in the torsional deflexion of the chassis frame and the consequent distortion of the body. The saloon body when new has a measure of torsional stiffness, which it adds to that of the chassis, but the coupe has very little and I fail to see how it can be made ever to have much more. The saloon, after its joints have disintegrated, represents a coupe in its much earlier life. The torsional deflexion tests on 10.G.4. and the Essex Terraplane "6" illustrate in the first case a saloon in a very loosened condition, and, secondly, the effect of a frame having stiff side members coupled in torsion by a cross and still more reinforced by an all steel body rigidly attached to the chassis. (See Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Grr?/E.25.1.34.) Since this type of body is popular, I presume we shall have to continue to build it. There would appear to be three possible methods of treatment to improve the results:- 1) To increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis frame by boxed -1- | ||