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 note on vehicle springing, damping, and buffer clearance to address pitching issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 67a\2\ scan0100 | |
| Date | 13th January 1928 | |
| To Ps. from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} [Handwritten] X8410 Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/LG13.1.28. SPRINGING. [Handwritten] X8410 [Handwritten, crossed out] X235 We are very interested in your note re. pitching difficulties with French cars. We suggest that you may find increasing the damping on the front springs makes more difference to pitching than increasing the rear spring damping. If you spring the car with normal springs to have 4 1/2" buffer clearance at the rear with full load, we think that you will find this is the optimum condition for Continental springing and should the axle hit the buffers too frequently in this condition it is permissible to cut 1/2" off the buffers provided the body work does not foul anything due to the increased axle movement. [Handwritten insertion] See There is no packing under the buffers. Our experience is that with 4 1/2" buffer clearance we are immune from [word struck out] hitting the buffers for all reasonable driving conditions. We find that over stiff rear springs do definitely give objectionable throwing in the rear seats with the normal type of car. As a last resort we have some special springs here with reduced camber which we recommend for very high speed merchants. They are suitable for a car which weighs 52 to 54 cwts. empty. We could arrange to let you have a pair if you are unable to obtain satisfactory results in any other way. The advantage is that they reduce the spring movement of the car without perching it up in the air, as happens when we normally spring a car for speed work. contd :- | ||