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 M. Wilks of The Rover Co., Ltd. discussing steering lightness, king pin offset, and wishbone suspension design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 116\1\ scan0125 | |
| Date | 30th July 1937 | |
| 1020 Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}11/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 30th July 1937 M.Wilks Esq., The Rover Co., Ltd., COVENTRY. Dear Wilks, Thank you for yours of July 29th. Will ear-mark August 26th for a bearing discussion. I do not know that you are correct in assuming that the large offset from the king pin makes a great difference in the lightness of the steering; as a matter of fact, if the transverse king pin inclination is greatly increased with a large amount of out-of-centre point, it definitely makes the steering heavy for shunting, because it means that the whole of the front of the car has to be lifted when the steering is turned on the look. We have always found that the effort to steer on a wishbone scheme is dictated by the amount of friction which has to be inserted in the system to avoid low speed wobbles. Basically, the Packard System of suspension can be made to give almost precisely the same geometry as the Oldsmobile. The big advantage, as far as I am concerned, is the wide spread of the bottom triangle which permits them to use lightly loaded rubber bushes. In any wishbone scheme, one of the serious disadvantages is the amount of ride noise which is transmitted to the frame, and the rubber bushes minimise this. Yours sincerely, | ||