Flaming River Rack and Pinon

[Twentyover]

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Fascination? I'd say bling. R&P cars was made way earlier than they stopped using steering boxes. If a R&P steering was so much better don't you think the engineers at the automakers would have tossed the steering box design as soon as the R&P design showd up?

If they needed to redesign the front of the frame/ structural stampings to fit an R & P, No

If they needed to pay off capital costs of dedicated usually automated tooling and assembly equipment, No



Having worked in automotive design, my opinion is eating the costs to redesign and re-qualify a significant change (particularly regarding a safety related feature) leads to design inertia to keep a known proven design. The fact is that as significant structural redesigns occur (usually due to marketing considerations), engineers are usually more willing to consider significant design changes from previously released.

It amazes me. Prior to retirement, I worked in automotive HVAC design. I redesigned a component from specific RHD and LHD components to (separate injection mold tools) to a common design, 37% material savings and weight reduction, payoff in 1.3 years. The customer rejected the design change because the savings wasn't enough. Don't assume that decisions made in the industry are always rational.

Sorry for straying so far off topic, but the rational argument presented by kimosabi does not always work i real life