Tigers,
Luckily, we do not have to guess at the origin if the Tiger steering
design, and the Ackerman Angle.
In 2002 The Tiger's United meet at Mammoth Lake had a guest speaker, Mr.
George Boskoff. George was working for Carroll Shelby, and was given
the assignment to take an Alpine and make a Tiger out of it. That was
about the limit of the "design criteria".
As George tells it, he put it together with no engineering, or technical
instructions, other than "get it in!". When it came to the steering,
the he chose a rack mounted to the front suspension cross member to get
around the block, but the connecting rods from the rack to the steering
arms were straight, and would not connect to the steering arms, which
were much further back.
At this time Carroll was off in Detroit, with his chief engineer (who I
am led to believe had little to do with the Tiger project), negotiating
another "big deal" with Ford. When he returned, George said he asked
what he should do with this mis-match. Carroll (known for his driving
and marketing skills, not his engineering expertise) told George to just
bend the arms back so they would fit. "But the Ackerman Angle will be
all screwed up", George advised (as he tells it). Carroll's Chief
Engineer was not involved (we are told) in this project, and neither was
Ken Miles.
"Just do it", was Carroll's reply, "we have to ship it." So, that is
what George Boskoff did, and Rootes never changed it since it worked
(sort-of).
That is how George tells it. Many were present at the dinner and heard
the talk. I have the video of the entire presentation, and live
witnesses to the event, in case you think this is a "tall tale".
Now you know how we got to where we are. Through schedule based
engineering, and British design review "It works, don't it?"
Now THAT is the documented truth, as related by the man who did it.
George attended yet another Tigers United event, this time along with
Carroll Shelby. Don't think this matter was discussed, but wasn't there.
Steve
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Steve Laifman
Editor
http://www.TigersUnited.com
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