shhhh!!...it's secret....

[reelrazor]

So, this dude has a summer property (500 acres) near my work/shop . His name is R** R******-he's about 70.

He is an engineer who has always had a passion for motorcycles. He worked for American Honda back in the early seventies-development for the american market.

Over the years he became an expert witness in trials and all the big four Japanese companies have utilized him/his business to re-create crash scenes...and the physics involved.

My boss has been contracted by him to build quite of few of the test rigs-often small scale railroad setups with chain or pneumatic drive systems..one of the last biggies was a Personal WaterCraft(*******) vs. **** accident where the PWC driver panicked and let off the gas (therefore losing steering control), hit the **** and killed himself and one of the **** passengers.

he dug a five acre pond...we made the rail system to bring them up to speed, and then release them on the proper path to impact.

That one is ongoing-was mistrialed and is going to be done again....

Well, he also does development/testing for a big four manu that I can't name....they are building a *************** that will be the first to carry the number of passengers it does....

They are concerned with the passenger restraint system-different shoulder bolsters, and seat belt systems.

Our shop built a hydraulic tilting table with a deck 16' x 14'. It is 8' off the ground. The prototype ***** is chained onto the table.

R** R****** needed some guys (more than 2, less than 5) to strap in and be tilted in the unit. I got volunteered. They have it being filmed from 5 synced cameras. 9 japanese engineers were there today, a couple american ones from blankety blank America in Los Angeles, and English engineer guy, a couple legal department guys. They did sets of four tilts (1.5g impact at bottom-90° tilt) with each restraint system.

They grilled us for our feedback on how the differing systems felt, what we thought of them, etc.

In the downtime during changes in restraints , we got to play on R** R******'* personal Honda Pilots (single seat dune buggies with a 400cc two stroke) and on his Gas Gas 270cc trials bike....

being back at work is GREAT!!!!

Of course I shmoooozed with the manu guys....handed out my personal contact cards...I could stand doing that kinda stuff for a living...

[WSM]

Sounds like a blast!
Those are the type of fella's to stay close to. Never a dull moment!

[haunter]

heheh very cool!!

[reelrazor]

We finished up today.

They turned the machine around on the test rig and re-ran some of the tests. A group of the manu guys actually got the nerve up to do it themselves.

There was a lot more consultation today on our impressions (I was in the driver's seat the whole time)....what the different configurations of restraints felt like....grab handle placement, shoulder bolsters, etc. I pointed out that rolling to the left my throttle foot was being wedged under the brake pedal and that got some consternation going among the legal dept guys....notes were made and much examination ensued.....

We then adjourned a garage/conference room to review the video and many questions were asked, frame by frame.

Yesterday, during an intermission, I found a few Petoskey stones in the gravel near the barn we were testing in. That is the Michigan State stone-fossilized coral from when this area was a salt water sea (350million years ago I believe). It polishes up nice.....people make jewelry from it. This is the only region on earth that you can find it. I pointed it out to a couple of teh japanesee engineers....and they were mightily impressed and started searching for more....

As we were leaving today...Hideo (one of them) scurried around in his bag and gave me a japanese snack food bag.....NO IDEA what it is.....the pictures look like..??? water chestnuts maybe?? None of the writing is in roman script, so I don't have any way that I know to google it or whatever....(they taste like ass).

And, the level of formailty in the leaving process was impressive...bows and handshakes went on a while.