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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).
Analysis of customer complaints regarding car ride quality, specifically low speed dithering and pitching.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 47\2\  Scan269
Date  14th August 1931
  
-2- Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Sal.1/14.8.31.Contd.

to worry about, but unfortunately not 5% of the cars sold
are of this type.

All our observations, unless otherwise qualified,
refer to the rear seats of the car. In our opinion there is
little or no cause for complaint about the riding in the front
seats of the car. The type of complaint with which we are
so far dealing, two or three of which are from Phantom 11
owners are :-

(1) Complaint of Low Speed Dithering.

This is the old Phantom 1 complaint at about
20 m.p.h. on a main road. We do not consider that there is
really much justification for such complaints because on both
Phantom 1 and Phantom 11 we are incomparably better off than
we were, now that the lubricated road spring has been standardis

The only way we know of dealing with this is
to use drilled v alves, but we do not like this because it brings
up complaint (2). On the whole we think that this 20 m.p.h.
complaint is confined to people who habitually drive at this
speed and therefore are a small minority. We do not think
that front springs have a very large bearing on this complaint.

(2) Complaint of Pitching 20 - 30 M.P.H.

This complaint is frequently justified and we
are concerned about it. It is particularly in evidence on main
roads where buses operate and produce a wavy surface. Most
people are driven at about this speed and most main roads carry
bus services. This complaint cannot be dealt with by the rear
spring rating, at present we should say that the majority of the
  
  


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