RE: PH blog: crazy radios
Discussion
The tale goes, that in the mid 70ies, when the phrase
"reverse engineering" was coined, some guys at BL got it
seriously wrong when they got hold of the first new BMW
5-series. Not only did they engineer a car with no road-
holding whatsoever, no power despite being loud. They
made sure to source headlights at Lucas, that were made
to go bleak and consequently they also let the middle console
face away from the driver...
Thus they had inverted the 5-series. How the Ital came away
with having the wheels not on top, I don't know. Production
restraints, probably.
Martin 480 Turbo
On a side note: As a continental I couldn't believe, somebody
possibly designed a DIN slot that wasn't. But remember, this was
pre-CAD days. I'll bet the frontal 2D drawing showed the radio
fitting perfectly. Only when they got the first dash fascias out
of the newly commissioned tooling they might have seen what they
had done. I would love to see the transcript of the meeting when
they made their radio supplier bend over and do a unit with one
corner cut off.
BL really did some hilarious stuff. In my universe John Cleese
invented them the day after the ministry of silly walks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/5162...
"reverse engineering" was coined, some guys at BL got it
seriously wrong when they got hold of the first new BMW
5-series. Not only did they engineer a car with no road-
holding whatsoever, no power despite being loud. They
made sure to source headlights at Lucas, that were made
to go bleak and consequently they also let the middle console
face away from the driver...
Thus they had inverted the 5-series. How the Ital came away
with having the wheels not on top, I don't know. Production
restraints, probably.
Martin 480 Turbo
On a side note: As a continental I couldn't believe, somebody
possibly designed a DIN slot that wasn't. But remember, this was
pre-CAD days. I'll bet the frontal 2D drawing showed the radio
fitting perfectly. Only when they got the first dash fascias out
of the newly commissioned tooling they might have seen what they
had done. I would love to see the transcript of the meeting when
they made their radio supplier bend over and do a unit with one
corner cut off.
BL really did some hilarious stuff. In my universe John Cleese
invented them the day after the ministry of silly walks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/5162...
Edited by Martin 480 Turbo on Friday 19th October 21:58
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