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).
Comparing the steering system of a 'Marmon' car with the company's own system.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 180\M4\M4.1\ img004 | |
| Date | 26th January 1921 | |
| To H.S. " EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} " R.R. of America Inc. } from R.{Sir Henry Royce} (For attention of O.Y.) Copy to O.J. " " PN.{Mr Northey} " " WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} " " DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} " " BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} " " BN.{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington} " " HM.{Capt. W. Hallam - Head Repairs} " " CX.{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} " " C. " " SA. ORIGINAL [Stamp: EEQ JAN 25 1922 RECEIVED.] [Stamp: D 26 JAN 1921 RECEIVED.] X 1692 X 963 RE STEERING, MARMON - ROLLS-ROYCE It is interesting to compare "Marmon" steering with ours, because this is the best car of the American shipment to handle that I have had, and the steering is like ours in principle (worm and nut) It steers well, but not as easily as ours, because it has xplain thrust on the stub axle pivotsx, and also these pivots are some distance out of the track centres, so that there is considerable twist in the bearings. There is one defect which is quite noticeable, and is serious under certain circumstances, i.e. it is not centre point steering, and if one hits a rut or brick etc. on one road wheel, the steering gets a bad shock. Also, if a tyre suddenly deflates, or the front wheel gets into soft road on one side, there would be a big pull round on the steering wheel. Therefore, our central point steering is far to be preferred, and if it has the defect of being too sensitive through absence of friction, it is only necessary to use plain thrust washer in one or both front pivots, and if too reversible, plain thrusts in the steering column. Otherwise,x we have all the good features it is possible to adopt with wire wheelsx, as far as we know. With disc wheels only, we might have central point (Contd.) R.R. 2287 10M.L.(or H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints}) 10/-11-20 C.B&S | ||