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SOD Archives Crypt
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Is there such a thing as 'Too Fast'?
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The IRL has had its share of misfortunes over the years and the unfortunate death of Tony Renna, an accident that followed right on the heels of the disastrous crash of Kenny Brack has got to make drivers, team owners, promoters and spectators take another look.
Since its inception the IRL has had enough spectacular crashers to challenge Winston Cup action. Running at the speeds they do and in such close proximity to one another it has only seemed a matter of "when" and not "if" a fatality would occur.
The list of drivers who have had serious crashes is long and disheartening.
Maybe it is time to rethink the configuration of the vehicles. A few years ago the Shelby Can Am series featured single seaters with full envelope bodies. Wheels could not touch.
Slowing the cars down doesn't seem to help but it seems to us that the growing list of those in recovery should reopen the discussion on safety.
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A contribution from the estimable Wm. Baker. Our most sincere thanks to him.
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Sons of Danger - Performance when it counts.
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SOD member Mark Davison, intrepid Formula Ford racer of some standing earned his place at the Valvoline Run Offs at Mid-Ohio. Arriving with his pit crew -wife Janet-too late for the fast day of qualifying, Davison placed himself 20th on the starting grid.
At the start on Saturday there was a geschmozzle that let two cars pass him. So, when he actually passed the green flag, Mark Davison was in 22nd place.
What ensued was the inspirational drive of the weekend. By races end, Mark Davison had passed 12 cars and moved into tenth spot. Unfortunately time ran out before he could move up further.
Mark drives an 18-year-old Swift DB1, does all his own tuning, has no sponsor and races because he loves it.
Now that's a Sons of Danger!
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New York Times? Cars?
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Can't believe that the NY Times really gave a hoot about cars. The Sunday magazine sure did last week.
All kinds of stuff including a funny piece about Toyotas' troubles selling the Scion. Seems that the most avid prospects for the teeny bopper vehicle are old folks who enjoy the low price and the ease of exit and entry. While a few young people are getting on the bandwagon it once again seems to prove that young people don't really want to be seen with the date their mom arranged. (She may have a degree in library science and make all her own clothes but she still has a dirty neck and hair under her arms.)
But, the NYT magazine did identify the coolest car in L.A. and that is a daunting task indeed. Selected by the Times was a 1969 Shelby Mustang GT 500. Owner of said vehicle is Michael Anthony, bassist for the Van Halens. Anthony places limitations on the music that can be played while driving. Bad music can create bad habits.
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SOD Tom Campau returns to the Reno Air Races again this year to defend
his National Championship in the T-6 Class. When interviewed by Reporter;
Little Lisa Soter, Tom was quoted as saying "No Sky too high, no muff too
tough". The Reno Air Races are to be held at the Reno Stead Airport,
9/11 thru 9/14, 2003.
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"Captain
Chaos"
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Mistakes Made Lessons Learned
By Christopher A. Sawyer, Executive Editor
Automotive Design & Production
In his career, Herb Adams has pretty much done it all, and
made mistakes along the way. Those stumbles, he claims, not
only helped him grow, they are essential to the proper development
of individuals, teams, and organizations.
Besides being something of a mythic character to Pontiac Trans-Am
owners (see box, "Mistakes Along the Way"), Herb Adams is an
engineer at American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM; Detroit, MI).
There, he is deeply involved in the company's I-Ride program,
designing and developing independent suspension systems that
bolt in place of live axles on existing light trucks and SUVs.
Yet his experience and attitude are trusted commodities in
an industry that has seemingly put its collective faith in
younger employees. "There is a definite benefit to having ‘gray
hairs' in the organization," says Ron Schoenbach, director,
Chassis Engineering at AAM. "They don't have all of the answers,
but they can help guide some of the younger engineers in the
right direction." It doesn't hurt, Schoenbach adds, when that
mentor isn't someone who has been around so long that they
think they have seen and done it all. "You need a visionary," he
says, "a person with a ‘can-do' attitude." A person like Herb
Adams. Don't let the Sant a-like gray hair and beard, or the
drawing board fool you. Herb Adams understands the need for
modern design tools, but believes successful engineering requires
the proper use of all of the tools available, even when they
may seem out-of-date by some. A New Approach Developing I-Ride
is a study in fast, get-it-done teamwork and development. Realizing
that Ford's across-the-board application of independent rear
suspensions (IRSs) on SUVs locked it into a higher cost structure
and reduced differentiation of models, Adams put together a
team charged with investigating the creation of a bolt-in IRSn
module for live axle vehicles, one that requires no modifications
to the floor pan. The team consisted of Adams, his boss, Jim
Downs, two finite element analysis (FEA) people, two computer-aided
design (CAD) people, and two people from the shop. "We shared
resources with our Advanced Axle and Rear-Steer groups, and
traded things back and forth as needed." Team interactions
were comparatively ad hoc, what Adams describes as "Come over
to my pod and tell me what you think" sessions that would happen
during the development. "That kind of stuff," he explains, "draws
on the practical experience of the people working on the project." But
what about things like CAD and FEA? How do they fit into this
free-wheeling design process? Says Adams, "They're tools that
you have to learn to use correctly, just like you learned to
use a drawing board," (Adams does admit to oc casionally using
a drawing board), "though in many instances it's faster to
study the problem, design the part in the shop, and then transfer
that to the model." The information gained from this quick
development process is used to create simulations, and quickly
refine the model. Something, Adams admits, "that wouldn't be
possible if you had al l of the hours in the world with a drawing
board and calculator." And advanced technology notwithstanding,
it's worth noting that the first I-Ride module–which underwent
changes and further development before it became an actual
product–was actually manufactured on a lathe and mill in Jim
Downs' garage. The initial I-Ride independent rear suspension
module was created in the project director's garage, though
experience and little bureaucracy guarantee that new designs
can go from an idea to the street in three months. The program's
premise is simple: to offer OEMs the benefits of IRS with little
hassle, much lower cost than an all-IRS platform, and greater
differentiation among related brands. Experience Matters This
approach was refined during Adams' racing days, but draws upon
a deeper well of experience. One that, he feels, often is overlooked. "You
learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes," he
says. "If you're not pushing the boundaries, you're not making
mistakes. And if you're not making mistakes, you're not learning." Cognizant
of the fact that corporations are risk-averse, Adams admits
that turning engineers loose without any guidance is self-defeating.
He suggests pairing new recruits with more experienced hands,
while making sure there's room for them to grow. "It's important
to have someone guide you along the way," he says, "who is
flexible enough to let you make some mistakes as you proceed." As
Adams sees it, this lets the new recruit–who may be an experienced
engineer in a new position, or a recent college graduate–gain
experience without threatening the successful completion a
project, or putting a company in financial jeopardy. "There
are two ways to approach a project," he says. "You can be very
exact, very precise, and dead-perfect the first time. Or you
build it, test it, and redesign it. Usually it takes a combination
of the two approaches to be successful, but you often learn
much, much more the second way." Adams also believes it is
necessary to build a team made up of younger and older members
who come from more than one discipline, and create an atmosphere
in which each member is willing to learn from the others. In
addition, bureaucracy must to be minimized to allow the team
to focus on its task, and make the most out of its inevitable
mistakes. "If you're working on a brand new product," Adams
says, "you'd better get used to the fact that you'll need to
go through four or five iterations before you get something
good out of it," but that this learning curve means, "it's
easier to zero-in on the correct answer the next time around." It's
a lesson he learned on the race track. "Good engineering is
like racing," Adams says. "Don't talk about it. Do it. Because
they're not going to delay the race for you." Mistakes Along
the Way Best known as a father of the Pontiac Trans-Am and
the division's Super Duty V8, Herb Adams has a fondness for
racing. While at Pontiac, he and his engineering team wanted
to go racing, but knew their bosses would never stand for–or
fund–an effort built around Pontiac's pony car. Undaunted,
legend has it that they took Mrs. Adams' 80,000-mile 1964 Pontiac
Tempest, de-stroked the 389-in.3 motor, and brought the car
up to race spec. It was entered in the opening round of the
Sports Car Club of America's 1971 Trans-Am championship to
howls of laughter from better funded competitors with newer
vehicles. Unable to qualify, the car was allowed to start from
the back of the pack, whereupon it moved through the field,
and was running second behind eventual winner Mark Donohue's
factory-supported Penske Racing AMC Javelin when the engine
quit. The publicity that followed the unfunded, after-hours
racers was enormous, as were the repercussions. In short order,
and reportedly with some "help" from Roger Penske, the project
was shut down by Pontiac's chief engineer. This wasn't Adams'
only defeat. His X-4-powered small car program – one of as
many as 19 small car research programs coursing through GM
in the late 1960s and early 1970s–fell afoul of Ed Cole's drive
to make GM an all-Wankel car company. Both Adams and the program–GM's
second X-4 engine design (Charles Kettering built the first
in the 1930s)– were transferred to GM's Tech Center where it
continued development as a two-stroke diesel before its eventual
cancella tion. Caught in the post-John DeLorean backwash (Adams
was seen as one of DeLorean's guys), he joined DeLorean's brother
Jack to design vehicles for Grand Prix of America, a go-kart
racing venture that quickly went bust. Next came a series of
eight matched cars commissioned by Pontiac for an International
Race of Champions-style racing series that never got off the
ground. This work, however, catapulted Adams into the automotive
aftermarket with VSE, and set the stage for Adams and his son
to begin building AC Cobra replicas in California. "Then my
son decided he wanted a chance to run that business himself,
and I got a job offer from AAM," says Adams. He may have been
fortunate to not be asked to work on John DeLorean's failed
sports car project, but that hasn't turned Adams off to automaking.
The word on the street suggests he may produce a vehicle of
his own design once his time is up at AAM. When asked about
the prospect, all Adams did was smile as he covered up the
stunning red car in the photo on his cubicle wall.
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