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).
Michelin's development of tyres, focusing on reducing lateral 'give' and improving drift-resistance.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\1\ scan0069 | |
| Date | 2nd November 1937 guessed | |
| - 2 - Messrs. Michelin, who owe much of their success to the thoroughness with which they tackle a difficult problem, set out to produce a tyre that, whilst reducing lateral "give" to a minimum, and so restoring that pleasurable sense of safety to the driver, would retain the resiliency of the "Superconfort". What may be described as "drift-resistance" must not be confused with "non-skid" properties. The skid problem was long ago solved once and for all by the "Stop" tyre and its non-skid tread. "Drift-resistance", on the other hand, is a vital factor in the road holding qualities of a car. Deflated back tyres cause "tail-wag", and the car becomes more or less unmanageable; tyres that are too hard do not grip the road, and make driving well-nigh impossible and extremely dangerous. These are extremes; but the solution must obviously lie between these extremes, and so Messrs. Michelin went thoroughly into the whole question. Since the trouble lay in exaggerated deformation (too much lateral "give" when cornering or on heavily cambered or banked roads), the walls of the tyre were obviously at fault. At one time the Americans thought they had solved the problem merely by increasing the size of their tyres, but they were mistaken. The outer cover had to be re-designed in order to stand up to the strain imposed by the extra speed, but this could only be accomplished by the old fashioned system of "trial and error". At last, after three years of meticulous research work, Messrs. Michelin have produced the "Pilot", which fully meets every requirement. x x x | ||