NAC - Lucas, Prince of Darkness

[isham-research.freeserve.co.uk at pop.pol.net.uk]

>> Did Audi purchase electrical products from Lucas of England??

> The guys on the CarTalk radio program were just
> jokingly speculating that same thing a few weeks ago!

Lucas screwed up bigtime, but not technically.  I worked with Lucas
development engineers at the end of the 1960s developing alternator
technology - my company produced the enameled winding wire they used.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Lucas' products - they were
every bit as good as Delco, Bosch or anyone else's.  What _was_
wrong was the Lucas sales force, who insisted on selling
under-specified units to vehicle manufacturers.  Going through
warrantly claims on burn-out units with the Lucas guys, the cause
was almost always the same: "Too small for the application".

Bear in mind that vehicle manufacturers are always adding gizmos.  A
fog light here, a window winder there.  The electrical system _should_
be specified at the start of a model's life for the bits and pieces
that would be added later - Lucas' sales force would sell the absolute
smallest unit they could to keep the price down, leaving no room
whatsoever for future enhancements to the vehicle.

It drove the Lucas development guys _nuts_ to see an alternator
they'd developed for a medium sized family saloon being fitted to a
Jaguar.

--
 Phil Payne
 http://www.isham-research.freeserve.co.uk/quattro
 Phone +44 7785 302803   Fax: +44 7785 309674