Monday, Apr 10, 2006 at 09:32
Hi Geoff,
A bit off topic but your story about your boss reminds me of a funny story re: testing things and looking stupid as a result.
Apparently (this predates me by many years but was still talked about by those who remember or had been told), when Holden first started putting seatbelts in cars in the early '70s they set up a demonstration for the journo's to demonstrate the amazing life saving strength of these new fangled seatbelts.
The idea was that they would demonstrate their faith in the product by suspending a new Torana over the big chief's Premier (top of the range at the time) by a few lengths of seatbelt and a crane, outside the building that is/was the Plant 3 cafeteria at Fishermans Bend. (In those days it was used for publicity & social functions like the regular company dinner dances - back when companies felt a social responsibility for the big family that were employees, sometime before they all became payroll numbers.)
The day arrived and all was in place. Some
bright spark (probably an engineer or a marketing person ;) ) decided they better do a dry run before the journo's and dignitaries arrived and they hoisted the Torana into position. All was
well, a sigh of relief was probably uttered and pats on the back all round.
The hour approached and all assembled to be astounded by the strength of modern materials. The Torana was hoisted into position over the Premier and all were impressed - until just shortly after when some of the belts snapped with a predictable result!
What was more than adequately demonstrated was that seatbelts are only rated for ONE use to their maximum working load and should never be used again afterward (such as after a serious accident where the car is repaired).
I'm not sure that it was widely reported, but then not many things in automotive journalism that involve egg on faces of either journalists or the big aussie car manufacturers ever are - the journo usually doesn't get the next big story if he makes them look bad.
Dave
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