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).
Visit to Daimler Works to observe their new 15 HP car with independent front suspension.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 154\2\ scan0043 | |
| Date | 12th October 1937 | |
| To BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} H.P.S, SWdL{Len H. Swindell} c. to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Mx.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} c. to Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} LES AET, STEADMAN. Please note Remarks. Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/DB.{Donald Bastow - Suspensions}4/N.12.10.37. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} VISIT TO DAIMLER WORKS - THURSDAY SEPT.23rd. This visit was the result of an invitation from Mr Simpson, the Chief Engineer of the Daimler Co.Ltd., during the I.A.E. Summer visit in Germany in June last, and subsequently an invitation was also obtained for Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Les.{Ivan A. Leslie} We were very well treated, being shown all over the Works, and also over their Experimental Shop. As BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} had previously agreed to this, we issued a return invitation, which was accepted for a date to be fixed later, after the Motor Show. The new 15 h.p. Daimler was perhaps the most interesting single item of our visit. This was then the only car in the Daimler-Lanchester range fitted with independent front suspension, the type chosen being the Andre-Girling. This system is also used on a Lanchester 14 h.p. announced since our visit, and has been adopted chiefly because it will prevent dipping of the front end during braking, which Mr Simpson says is otherwise apt to be alarming, especially to those unaccustomed to cars with the soft springs permitted by independent front suspension. They use 8" static deflection springs front and rear, although on the car in which we had a short run they felt rather harder than this; perhaps the Silentbloc bearings in the front suspension have stiffened it up somewhat, also the roll rods front and rear for individual wheel bumps. The car was however remarkably comfortable on the unmade road type of surface. In spite of the large change of caster angle, approximately 7 or 8 degrees for a 3" bump, with an initial caster angle of 3 degrees, they had had no trouble with low speed wobble; they have Thompson steering ball joints, plain pivot bearings and the pivot thrust consists of a button with a fairly large radius spherical surface bearing on a flat surface on the pivot pin, both surfaces being hardened. They had had trouble with what they called "flick" which we believe corresponds to our "joggles", this being worst at about 40 m.p.h.; they had however cured this by changing from a centre-point radiator mounting to a solid mounting, and assume that the trouble was due to a resonance effect. The radiator still appeared steady in spite of the solid mounting. | ||