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).
Letter from Maurice Olley of Cadillac regarding the characteristics of front-wheel drive vehicles, including tire traction and suspension issues.
Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\3\ img100 | |
Date | 24th September 1936 | |
CADILLAC MOTOR CAR COMPANY DETROIT, MICHIGAN [Logo: CADILLAC and LaSALLE MOTOR CARS] September 24, 1936. Mr. S. W. Grylls, Rolls-Royce, Limited, Derby, England. Dear Gry{Shadwell Grylls}: Yours of August 13. I do not know anything much about the steering of front drives. They tell me the Cord is pretty good. Our objection is that to get a typical acceleration from a traffic light, of say 10 ft per second squared, requires a tire traction coefficient of about .7 on a front drive and only .55 on a rear drive. Hence, only under exceptionally good road conditions can the front drive really do its stuff and at other times it slips its front wheels. I imagine your wear on the inner tire is due to carrying too much of your rolling couple on the front wheels due to rotary stiffness of the front suspension being high. Thus the inner wheel lacks sufficient load to hold the wheel from rotary slipping. We had the same effect on inner rear wheels by having the rear stabilizer too stiff. Yours, [Signature: Maurice Olley] Maurice Olley M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} Olley H [Handwritten Notes: A note 'oy' is written in the top right. A diagonal line crosses out 'steering of' in the first paragraph. A second diagonal line crosses out the entire third paragraph.] | ||