Retro Reproduction 2

[rod]

Hello Tony
             Well like a lot of things its not always simple.
Lets deal with the GT40 first.
  Well I know why I picked the car as opposed to the display.
In the late 1960's I did what was called a sandwich course.
Part of the time at work and part at college.
I worked in the test lab of a local cable manufacturer
The guy I worked for was in his sixties and would retire soon.
He had  been a racing driver prewar and knew everybody in car racing.

So well as having a test lab with every kind of electronic test 
equipment you could ever want.
I spent a lot of time at race tracks. At nineteen what more could you want.

Anyway one day I came back from lunch to find a GT40 parked outside the lab.
It was very sparse inside just bare fiber glass, wiring and a small 
passenger seat.

My boss said oh you have seen it then? Want a ride? Dave will take you.
I said it was a bit spartan inside.
Oh yes its just raced at LeMans ( can't remember if they won that year)
we have to keep the weight down

I'm 5'7" and weighed about 130 pounds in those days and I could get in.
My boss could not!
Suffice to say off we went and headed up to Maidenhead where the M4 
began in those days.
It was unrestricted and what followed was a blur, the vibration  , the 
noise.
No speedometer just a large rev counter.

When we got back there was my boss with a big grin on his face.
The driver stayed in the car and we waved him off.

Bill (the boss) took me in his office and poured me a small scotch from 
his  private supply.
I said I was a bit shook up. He said he was not surprised as 180 mph in 
a GT40 would do that.

Happy Days oh yes!

Rod




On 24/10/15 12:19, tony duell wrote:
>> The UK is full of small companies making and repairing all kinds of past
>> products.
>>
>> For example the MGB GT (a much loved British sports car). The factory
>> stopped making them in the early 1980's
>> However a few guys bought the press tools and have been turning out two
>> or three body shells a day ever since.
>>
>> Copy of a Shelby Cobra - no problem build from a kit. GT40 clone oh yes!
> Be careful... On this list a GT40 comes from DEC and not Ford :-)
>
> But as I understand it, those reproduction cars have reproduced bodywork
> on top of modern mechnanicals. The engine, for example, is not a copy of
> the original, it's a current-production car engine, complete with electronic
> engine management and thus without the reason I would want a classic
> car in the first place!
>
> It's like a lot of the reproduction computers discussed here and elsewhere. They
> look the same, the run the same programs, but no way _are_ they the same. An
> RPi (or Beaglebone, or...) running an emulator is not a PDP11/70.
>
> And as a hardware hacker, a machine I can't stick my logic analyser on is of little
> interest
>
> -tony