Simon,
When’s the release date for your book?
Hubert
Disney do fairy tales, don’t they?
…about to take delivery of one of the earliest K prototypes…
It’s amzing what can get smuggled out of Longbridge these day!
Ian
Surely that’d be an L?!
Is it just coincidence that both Rover and Honda’s 4 have K for a name? [a more serious question that one]
Ian
Surely that’d be an L?!
Is it just coincidence that both Rover and Honda’s 4 have K for a name? [a more serious question that one]
Ian
My understaing is that the Rover K series was designed by Honda / Rover when they were buddies, then when they went their seperate ways honda and rover continued to develop the K on their wonsome IYSWIM…
So the disagreements are actually a sort of automotive Cain & Abel story - cool!
And you can bet the religious types blame the Japs for basically being the best engineers on the planet
It’s in their history, to take an existing “technology” and make it the best in the world…
Example 1, Martial Arts, came from China and the Japanese removed all the “flowery” bits, made everything direct and have purpose.
Number 2, the Katana, they took the usual sword design and make THE BEST THE WORLD has ever seen! Something that was scapel sharp from hilt to tip and from the finest steel argueably even until today!
Finally (in my limited knowledge), the yanks, after nukeing them feeling a little guilty, allwed them access to their automotive processes and viola! They start to make the best cars in the world IIRC Toyota are the largest independant motorfactor on the planet, impressive stuff!
But it was developed when Honda and Rover were working together right?
Ergo, it doesn’t matter WHO personally developed it, but who was paying their wages at the time
And I don’t know what you rproblem with Honda is? Sure they’re very agressive in business terms (but so are all sucessful companies it seems), and their racing history speaks volumes for them in my mind, something that I can’t put onto MG / Rover, there’s some but it’s never been quite the same level…
And when it come to motorbikes honda have done pretty bloody well, just look at the Moto GP, Rossi is a god but I doubt anyone else would be able to beat the Honda on any other bike
No K was concieved long before the honda hook up, and was a ground breaking British design that the japs are only just beginning to catch up with but are still behind - hence all the extra weight. and for the record honda have produced some good race engines but their road engines are very competant compared to most mass produced 4s but behind the times conservative and clumsy by comparison with the K.
Isn’t that the whole point of a road engine - to be very competent? No point in producing something on the bleeding edge of innovation - if it isn’t reliable? This has been one of the biggest failures of British engineering this century. The Comet is a classic example. And the K with all its problems another. I have no idea how good or bad it was in the Metro etc, but I do know it was hopeless in the Freelander with regard to HGF etc. I have two friends that owned them and both suffered massive unreliability. Better to over engineer and enhance your brand reputation aka the Japanese and save a bit of money - since you won’t be paying dealers for expensive warranty work.
Now lets think … what company recently went down the pan and which company expanded in the UK … er … er …
Agree with Ian and Andy here, Toyota have got to be the biggest car manufacturer by a reputation for reliability! Everything over engineered…
My MkI MR2 had 211,000 miles on the clock when the bodywork finally rusted to dust but up to that point had been tracked mercilessly for 2 years by me and never had so much as a hiccup! Now I don’t feel the same way about the K and no amount of propaganda will change that opinion! (Because it is just that, an opinion )…
As I said before, give the japanese a design and watch as they refine it
Or we can refine it here.
That’s what Simon is doing. And I can only be happy about it.
Thats what Simon id TRYING to do… he hasn’t proven anything to us yet…
But your not interested Randy as you have clearly stated, not even wanting to read the book…but anyway
You never listen to what I say so why should I take notice of your preachings, especially when there is never anything meaningful to back them up.
As I said before, give the japanese a design and watch as they refine it
RemarkLima
You got it in a nutshell here… but in the rest of your post(s) I hope your not confusing the Japanese’ obvious manufacturing prowess with their design capability…?? although you also mention this earlier on… what the Japanese have excelled at is implementing the teachings and theories of the ‘quality’ guru’s like Deming and Juran (totally unknown in their native USA till the Japanese made us all sit up and take note) and then forging that with the Eastern work-ethic and loyalty and the culture of community-and-family-before-self… that’s why we western cultures can’t get it right even tho’ its usually European and North americans that come up with the original ideas and ‘designs’… we know traditionally British engineering design has been the best in the world… but we were still fu$$*ng around with Mcgregors theory X and theory Y while the Japanese were re-engineering our motorbikes and automobiles along with everything else… anyway, we’d rather be in the pub - esp on a Friday - than at the factory making it all work…
There are of course individual exceptions but its the masses that call the shots here… We never really got hold of the ‘quality management message’ BTW from what i’ve read so far i’d probably call Simon Erland one of the exceptions but he lacks the resources of a multi-national company… obviously…
anyway, you got me started on one of my soapboxes… laters…