Hi there.
Since this seems to be the hot topic, I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents by
sharing my experience.
I saw my first Bricklin almost 3 years ago. I had never heard of this thing
before, despite a serious interest in cars since my early teens (the
mid-80's - I have a stack of "Hot Rod" and "Car Craft" magazines that would
break my back if I tried to lift it all at once, and had done 2 "project
cars" before). I was intrigued, but the car was a near-total basket case,
so I hit the web trying to find some info.
I found Scott Isensee's page, which was a good start, but pretty incomplete
compared to what's available today. I took his word for it that there was a
community of people knowledgeable about the car, and he gave me contacts for
BI, Bob Hoffman and Terry Tanner. I took a deep breath, and dove into
Bricklin ownership.
But I very nearly didn't. I had to decide to believe a stranger about the
availability of information, or fork out the dough up front to join the club
and see for myself. Since there was another bidder for the car, and since
those gull wing doors and 351 cubes were just driving me nuts, I did the
former.
What I'm saying is that if the page contained the amount of info it does
now, I wouldn't have hesitated. The free exchange of information would have
made the purchase a lot more appealing. I haven't joined BI yet, because
the project has gone from the planned restoration to a pretty serious
modification, so as it turns out, most of the tech info about the Bricklin
isn't useful to me. But I do like to be on the mailing list, see how people
are making out with their cars, and answer a question now and then when I
can.
For what it's worth, my experience with sharing information is quite
different from Greg's. I've learned a lot about physics, math, and writing
software, for example, from public newsgroup discussions (anyone out there
remember Usenet?). I've learned a lot about chassis design and dynamics
from several web pages, and personal correspondence with Greg himself. I've
learned a lot about rotary engines from the RX-7 mailing list. I've tried
not to be stingy with the info I've gained and I like to help out when I
can. Once this project is done, I'd definitely like to contribute an
article or two to the Brickline about my experiences, but I certainly
wouldn't hesitate to answer questions by email or put stuff up on a
freely-available website.
I must agree 100% that the marque isn't helped any by making BI a "secret
society". And I'd also like to make the point that I for one am more likely
to eventually become a member of BI as a result of having benefited from the
info posted on the web page than in order to obtain more info. Seeing the
amount of effort, patience, and care that John in particular puts into this
list, the web page, and the magazine is a lot more likely to get me to cough
up the cash than holding the information hostage would be.
Amen. ;)
--
Phil Martin pmartin@surgnav.com
"Sometimes there's a fine line between
cleverness and property damage."
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