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).
Technical report discussing improvements and observations on steering, suspension, engine, and transmission components.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179\2\ img210 | |
| Date | 4th February 1932 guessed | |
| -3- Steering. This is disturbingly good. It appears to be partially attributable to :- (1) Ride Control. Adjustable shock absorbers. The stiffening up of the shock absorbers at high speeds at once reduces the wheel fight. (2) Shimy shackle. They state this definately improved shocks and road reaction. MT is sending the production drawings as they do it quite nicely. (3) Box section frame front. This can be seen in the picture of the engine mounting enclosed. They say this helped appreciably. (4) More irreversible steering gear. I feel we must go irreversible if we are to compete with the Americans, the shimy shackle seems to take the stresses out of the steering linkage. Automatic Tappet Adjustment. They have done a considerable amount of development work on this and think they have got it right. The feature they stress is the necessity of getting the air out of the oil before it gets in the tappet and I attach a sketch of their latest tappet arrangement and the way they think they get the air out. They use main engine oil at 25 to 30 lbs/sq.in. I think the scheme is worth an experimental run in view of J.111 characteristics. They diamond bore the tappet. Radiator. They have had to go to a radiator 4" deep but are now satisfied with the cooling. Fan noise worries them with the high engine speeds, they dont think much of the oddly spaced blades. Variable pitch with speed as on that dynamo drive of Newtons would seem one way out. Gearbox. This is made complete by the Warner Co. and is fitted with a synchro mesh, silent third, and free wheel. The synchro mesh works very well with the free wheel in action but not so well without it. I think Piecre Arrow are hoping to improve this point. The silent third was very fair and alleged to have straight teeth. He/Rs.{Sir Henry Royce's Secretary} | ||