[Tigers] Risky Business

[m_dangelo at verizon.net]

Gary,

Believe me, I am all about adrenaline rushes and taking lots of calculated risks.  I love to seek the edge of physics, to get to it without crossing the limit.  That's exactly what I thrive on the most.  But that adventurism, in this case, requires my complete faith in the integrity of the machine I am driving.  Without that, it is quite impossible to seek the edge of physics without pulling back, even if it's just a bit, for fear that the car will betray me and cause grave harm to me and/or itself.  The issue with the way many of you are portraying the Tiger, in my own humble opinion, is that there is a [false] sense that the car is prone to random, catastrophic failures, which can easily injure or kill you.  The operative word here is "random".  How can one calculate risks when there is a variable and random element in that calculation?  It's not possible and only cause insecurity.  

I mean, come on.  If you rev the engine at 6500 RPM, your flywheel may explode and buzz saw your feet off!  Oh no!!!  If you back up in a parking lot, or drive down the street, your fulcrum pin will fail, causing you to careen into a telephone pole without warning.  Smash!!!  Your U-joint may fail in your drive shaft, causing you to either be pole vaulted onto your head or, even better, cause you to lose your brakes and catch fire at the same time.  Crash Boom!!!  Your ball joints may explode; even if you thought you were doing preventive maintenance, you have pulled the pin on a hand grenade in your front suspension.  Screech Kaboom!!!  It's all really quite absurd.  I'm truly surprised that all you engineers do not understand how damaging this is to the reputation of this car.  

Can you imagine what would happen to public confidence in helicopters if engineers were to explain how many of the myriad simultaneously moving components could possibly fail?  What's more surprising is that no one is saying that these problems are not only tied to our cool Tigers, but to all or most classic cars of the era, to include Cobras and other highly sought muscle cars.  But go to a Mustang or Cobra forum and you won't find these dire warnings of impending doom.  Let's try to at least put strong caveats above our warnings.  Right?

Mauro     

Apr 16, 2010 06:42:42 AM, arado7 at sbcglobal.net wrote:

If the Tiger had no allusion of danger it would not be as much fun.    gary 
B9472283

--- On Fri, 4/16/10, Jeffrey Nichols  wrote:


From: Jeffrey Nichols 
Subject: [Tigers] Risky Business
To: tigers at autox.team.net
Date: Friday, April 16, 2010, 12:26 AM


A newbie to this list may wonder what type of nut drives a Sunbeam Tiger,
First we had discussion on "exploding ball joints" a while back , then it was
brought up that these cars have suspension fulcrum points ready to snap while
backing out of your driveway (if you are lucky and not on the road driving) ,
now we have flywheels and clutch assemblies that "explode" with the  force of
a small bomb cutting off limbs or  converting you to a gelding.  Anyone
reading this list has to conclude that the Tiger has to be one of the most
life and limb threating vehicles on the road. 

                                                                             
            Jeff
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