15-02-2018, 10:45 AM
(14-02-2018, 09:40 PM)Ian Williams Wrote: I believe that Bill Williams made his wide axle by cutting two axles and welding them together increasing the track by about 4", no doubt Stuart can confirm this.
This seems to be the case, Ian. The central 9" or so on the wide axle is filled with weld so the exact method is not apparent to the naked eye.
We have moved away a little from roll oversteer but, if I may be indulged, a couple more remarks on wheel patter.
When my father first raced the car with the wide axle it had the front shock absorbers shown in 1937 pictures of the car, basically a standard arrangement with lengthened arms. Despite careful balancing, wheel patter first time out at Silverstone was shocking. This was almost 50 years ago so Dougal wasn't in the paddock but (probably) Vintage Tyre Supplies were there and were most helpful, trying two further pairs of front tyres to no avail until the penny dropped and a brave man ensured the tyres were seating properly by inflating to some terrifying pressure for a short time. Father, ever cautious, quietly edged behind something substantial while that was going on. Anyway it worked; later we fitted separated s/as with the arm linked to the radius arm end as belt and braces.
I suspect I now understand why this was a particular problem with the Aerolite wheels. This should not bother anyone else but the curious who have supported my literary efforts may like to peruse p.110 of the opus to see if they agree.
It interests me to see that this car had separate front s/as linked to the radius arm ends in 1938, possibly to help control the same tendency. I have some photos showing this clearly which are not in the book but you can just see the arrangement in the photo on p.21. I think the separated shockers were transferred to the Jarvis monoposto in early '39, see p. 32.
Apologies for thread drift - my memory suddenly worked!
Regards,
Stuart