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).
Dangers and steering control issues associated with front tyre bursts.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 80\1\ scan0074 | |
| Date | 14th April 1921 | |
| x 3791 x 3791 x20 RECEIVED 18 APR 1921 S.D. HRS APR 14 1921 RECEIVED Psl/N12421. Copy to Hives Re Mr Padden and Danger from Front Tyre Bursts. Thanks for copies of correspondence re above, Mr Padden left for London about a fortnight ago. The point raised by Sa, is not new to me I Mwas asked the same question by Capt.Hull. Mr Hives discribes the danger very accurately, and although the fitting of a friction device would assist the driver to central the steering wheel, it would add very little to avoiding the accident. I dont think the danger is peculiar to Rolls-Royce cars, the possibilities exist on all cars not fitted with an absolutely irreversible steering gear. No car that I know of has an irreversible steering and there are several makes now-a-days with the steering as light as our own. The danger lies in the fact that few drivers are really conscious of what may happen from a front tyre burst at high speeds, and consequently drive even at high speeds with the steering wheel light in their hands. In such instance, if a tyre bursts, the wheel is wrenched out of their hands and the car in the gutter before they realize what has happened. That is the danger which Mr Hives rightly points out. From experience/and I have had three different bursts at high speeds/, I find a tyre will not come off if the wheels keep their direction, there is nothing to induce them to do so. Two of the three bursts were on R.R. cars and nothing extraordinary happened although one side of the tyre in one case was blown off. The third instance was on a similar H.P Peugeot on which I was a passenger, the tyre came right off the wheel, and an awful accident would have resulted had there been the usual gutter at the side of the road This was an example of no control of the steering wheel | ||