[Tigers] Fuel pump fix

[Marc Small]

On 4/23/2014 4:50 PM, Jay Laifman wrote:
> Dad always used to talk about how the English wouldn't fix the engineering
> problem, only create extra solutions.  For instance, the starter would jam.
>   Rather than figure out how to make a starter that wouldn't jam (like the
> Germans and Japanese did), the English added a little knob on the starter
> that could be turned with a wrench to unjam the starter when needed. Pure
> genius.
>
> So, rather than move the fuel pump down low, away from the muffler, and as
> close to the fuel tank as possible (or add an impact switch), I've decided
> to mount small fan next to the fuel pump that is wired to turn itself on
> whenever the engine gets too hot.   Moreover, I'll be extra efficient and
> I'll run the power straight from the ignition switch.  Better yet, I won't
> even use a ground wire!  I'll mount the fan with sheet metal screws, and
> let the screws be the grounds.  Oh, and I'm sure that if the British were
> to do this today, they would source the product from the best vendors
> equivalent to Lucas.  So I'll be sure to get a Chinese fan as well.
>
> D
Jay

Your father and I often spatted but I always respected his approach to 
things.  Note the jackleg manner in which t Fod produced the Mustang.  
Rootes was on its last legs financially following the death of the first 
Baron Rootek who had been the salesman.  His brother, Sir William, was 
the corporate genius and even he could not save Rootes.  It was dead as 
a door-nail by 1962 and while His Lordship did not accept this, Sir 
William did.

There was no reserve of money. Sir William deserves applause from us all 
for his insistence on funding the Alpine and Tiger lines.  There simply 
wasn't the money on hand or the promise of sales to keep the matter 
afloat, so it sunk to the bottom of the sea, like HMS HOOD, like RMS 
TITANIC.

Build a time machine. Go back to, say, 1955, and place outrageous bets 
at Harold's Club in Reno.  Once you ave accumulated ten million dollars, 
call Sir William and buy in, and tell him that you have more at hand.  
Take a grand sports almanack with you. YOU could keep Rootes alive, if 
you only had a time machine.

It did not help that the British PM, Harold Wilson, kept devaluing the 
British pound.  He did that three times.  Every time he did this, the 
sticker price on UK cars in the US went up by 15% or more.  He slit his 
own nation's throat and did so neatly.  (He is the only British PM I 
have ever meet.  I had twenty minutes with him but that was a matter of 
Doctor Small to Lord Wilson and, for once, I  had common sense, so I 
asked him about his WWII experiences and avoided having to  ask him just 
why he destroyed British industry.

Marc


> ad would be most proud.