Those individuals, who were the British Auto Industry in the 1950's and 1960's,
were, I believe, a darn clever lot. My admiration, for those technicians,
directors, engineers, and managers, grows as I read more historical material on
the industry in that time period. Even if I am Merican.
While small in comparison to many of their competitors in the emerging
international automobile market, they used ingenuity to fabricate "new" models
by using many components from existing models. As pointed out, this helped to
minimize the negative cost effects of limited production runs. It occurred to me
that more production efficiencies were realized by using parts that were in
common with their British car manufacturer competitors.
Think about the components that are common on, for example, a big Austin Healey
and a TR. How about lever shocks, disk and drum breaks, electrical components,
(no Lucus comments, please), overdrives, etc, and there are more. Some partnered
together to use an engine from one manufacture and a body/chassis from another
(whether it be car or tractor).
I believe that the international competition to the British auto industry led
that industry to this approach and helped to gain even more production run
efficiencies for the limited model runs. Today's outsourcing doesn't approach
the efficiencies gained by the British auto manufactures who not only
outsourced, but outsourced and used industry-wide standard components.
I bet that those of you with have dealt with multiple marques can think of many
more examples of this component sharing.
Just some economic mental gymnastics brought on by the parts catalog.
Ken Dahman
Manchester (St. Louis County), Missouri, USA
'59 TR3A TS/46295-LO "Winston"
Ken.Dahman@anheuser-busch.com
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