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 difficulties with damping engine torque reaction and chassis vibration, specifically mentioning the Continental Phantom.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\R\2December1927-February1928\ Scan136 | |
| Date | 30th January 1928 guessed | |
| contd :- -2- (d) Damping. We have tried various types of damping. The present torque reaction dampers are definitely of assistance. The amount of damping we can use, however, is very small or the vibrations are transmitted directly to the frame which is not rigid enough to withstand them. We have tried fitting a plate on the back of the cylinder head and using one of the RR. scuttle dampers between the engine and the dash. The result shows that again we can only use a very small amount of damping before we get into trouble. The fundamental difficulty appears to be that we have nothing on the chassis of sufficient rigidity to enable the relatively large mass of the engine to be damped. There is nothing sufficiently solid to which to attach the damper. We think the cross in the frame will enable us to regain some torsional stiffness. The actual severity of the torque reaction on the Continental Phantoms we have already made is possibly very little worse than bad examples of the standard car. We must expect to get samples worse than those that we have at present however. The range of vibration is from 17-22 m.p.h. We can move the period a few m.p.h. up or down with dampers. We have a number of experiments in hand but cannot at the moment see the possibility of an immediate cure. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/W.A.Robotham. | ||