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 analysis of vehicle springing, weight distribution, and cornering dynamics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 24\1\ Scan043 | |
| Date | 12th December 1931 guessed | |
| 9. which in turn react on the rear wheels. If the stiffness of the springing is known the time for this sequence of operations is readily calculated. I find that for an average car with normal springing the time interval is exactly the same as that required for the inequality to pass from front to rear wheels at a speed which lies between 35 and 40 m.p.h. Thus at ordinary driving speeds the effect is at its worst. By arranging the weights along the length of the car so that K =AB^2 the effect is minimised or entirely obviated. The effect is not to be confused with good or bad springing. The latter minimises the effects of impacts and shocks on the passenger. By arranging the weights in the manner advocated the magnitude of impact and shocks to be taken up by the springs are themselves reduced. Now consider the conditions of equilibrium of the car and its effect on the liability of the car to skid when turning on a curved path. Such a motion may be considered in three phases. The first part of the motion when turning into the curved path from the straight; the middle phase or motion on the curved path with uniform linear and angular velocity and the latter part of the motion when the car is straightened out again from the curved path to the straight again. Taking first of all the second phase of the motion. When the car is turning with uniform angular velocity the only lateral force to be considered is that due to radial acceleration or centrifugal force. This is balanced by the lateral forces between the wheels and road surface which prevent sideslip. Since both the resultant of the centrifugal forces and the resultant of the gravitational forces acts at the centre of gravity of the car, the lateral force at each pair of wheels tending to produce skidding will be proportional to the weight on the wheels. If, as is | ||