This weekend we ran at the Blackhawk Classic and had the most wonderful
time despite having to correct some problems.
We used Friday as a test day, and had a carefully worked-out test plan
for each session , both for engine and for suspension.
In the third session, our plan was to disconnect the Panhard rod to see
what improvement, if any, that might make on the handling of the TR4. I
had carefully engineered this Panhard rod with adjustable pickup points
on both ends, adjustable Heims on the ends, etc. When my son Tony slid
under the car to disconnect it, he broke out laughing. The bracket
wasn't bolted to the frame! I must not have tightened the nuts. We had
already been running without it!
Then I got home and fired up the computer this AM to see what was
happening around the country and a friend had sent me the following
tidbit, which in my twisted mind kind of related to my humiliation
regarding over-engineering:
"During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the
>U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed
>a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space
>capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut
>Pen was developed at a cost of approximately $1 million U.S. The pen
>worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back
>here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a
>pencil."
Like my son Tony said, "there's enough humiliation to go around in this
hobby...."
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