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).
The Phantom III steering and the difficulty of detecting a partially deflated tyre on an independently sprung chassis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 95\1\ scan0449 | |
| Date | 19th October 1937 | |
| [Handwritten: 350] Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} P.III STEERING. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}15/R.19.10.37. It is quite true that with an independently sprung chassis it is very difficult to know whether a tyre is really flat or not. There seems to be no solution to the problem of making a car which will ride so well that pot holes are hardly noticed by the passengers, and yet warn them of the road inequalities brought out by a partially deflated tyre. Of course, as soon as the car slows down, the driver should know there is something wrong because his steering will be heavy. Incidentally, as the section of our tyre is considerably less than that of the bigger American cars, we are relatively better off than they are. We can only conclude that the reliability of the modernn tyre ensures that this complaint very rarely occurs. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||