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).
Issues with rear sideway shake and heavy steering, with comparisons to competitor vehicles.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 91\2\ scan0302 | |
| Date | 28th August 1937 | |
| ( 2 ) REAR SIDEWAY SHAKE. When riding in the back of the car over a rough road, there is a terrific noise from the body and rear of the chassis, caused from the sideway movement of the chassis. On further examination it is apparent that the chassis noises do not come from the threaded shackles at the rear end of the springs, but from a point near the front anchorage of the spring and near the axle. It can be seen that there is a lot of relative sideway movement between the frame and the chassis at the rear body mounting. If there were no noises, the sideway shake would not be considered as being a serious complaint on this car. STEERING. The steering of this car is bad. The road shocks are very unpleasant and it is very heavy. Owing to the heaviness of the steering with 35 lbs front tyre pressures, it is impossible to add to the safety of control by reducing these pressures to 30 lbs. The steering particularly feels bad in comparison to Wraith, but Wraith steering feels considerably inferior to the Packard. It is horrible to compare Phantom III's with the Packard. Now-a-days, all American cars get superior control and ride by running front tyre pressures at 25 lbs. Due to heaviness we cannot run Phantom III lower than 35 lbs. and Wraith lower than 30 lbs. Although we may not want to reproduce a steering gear quite so low geared as American cars, it seems certain that all customers other than possibly the very few Sports Drivers would prefer lower geared steerings. It also is certain that we should be trying the minimum amount of pivot leans. If yoke pieces giving various combinations of pivot leans were built up with brakes and hubs, it would be a very simple job to change them over and test them thoroughly in France. In order to keep up-to-date with America, it appears that we should start off with the correct tyre size and pressure, and then find the most suitable pivot leans. | ||