Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi Keith
I am very happy with the products and service I got from bettercarlighting.co.uk. Gil there designs and sells some really high quality gear. Very pleasant and helpful. Recommend you ring him to discuss your needs. Phone number on website.
Steve

I have to agree with statements by Roger and Chancer.

One should not forget that the Japanese auto industry pretty much copied and even licenced most of its early offerings from the British. The thing that quickly made there offerings superior was that they fixed problem spots that the British were unwilling or unable to do.
Lucar connectors come to mind. A constant problem on all British cars.
Early Japanese had essentially a copy but they came up with a tight fitting neoprene sleeves that actually kept the water and corrosion out.
Jeremy Clarksons bit on who killed the British auto industry is pretty much spot on IMO except for any mention of the international money games which were a big factor as well.

Kurt.

Spot on Nomad, I was always amazed to see designs used on Japanese cars that I had considered before to be rubbish because they were the achilles heel of the British or European car that they were fitted to, as you say their attention to detail, materials selection and quality of manufacture made what I now realise were good designs work properly for the first time, I can think of a few examples of drum brake self adjusters that were a case in point.

They were not innovators but what they didnt know about quality and control of manufacture could be written on a fag packet.

In my time Lucas was the 'Prince of Darkness' -but as I understand it they were under constant pressure from the manufacturers to get costs down. So as long as the component lasted longer than the warrenty period then things were fine. Not the best way to make high quality products and lots of their stuff was not good; but some of their stuff was not as bad as some modern pattern parts.

I had just finished my apprenticeship with the Ministry of Defense in the UK. I was much younger and na?ve. Still attending technical college (another 3 years) and was being groomed by both management and the trade Unions, EETPU..
I had forced a shop meeting and basically elected myself to office of shop Stewart at the young age 21. And drinking the ideological blue collar/Union cool Aid.

Due to the college and some initiative, I was asked by management to attend a ?Time and Motion? training course in Banbury in the UK. Strange opportunity for a Union guy, and those engilsh girls were very cute. T
he course fundamentals all made a lot of sense. Using a planned approach to manufacturing, ergonomics, space and resource use etc. I learn a lot about time study and efficiency planning and management. One of the last exercises was a live case study. It was conducted at a Lucas manufacturing plant
.
What an experience that was! When they saw me coming down the shop floor, they would shut down the machines and turn the lights out, and only start them up when I would leave. Needless to say that part of the course was a complete waste of time. But rather funny when I think about it now.

A few years later, I became disillusioned with management the Trade unions, (I resigned) and was also fed up with the trouble in Northern Ireland. I headed off to Canada, to find my fame and fortune in 1979.

It always makes me smile when I hear about ?Lucas, the prince of darkness? It really has a personal and slightly different meaning to me, that I thought I would share with you all
James.

King of the road
Hence
Prince of darkness

Mostly undeserved.

Latery Lucas was a FTSE 100 company making good products. It's demise, like that of so many of the then remaining British manufacturers was due to the relentless search for shareholder value.

Ironically to fill the pensions of the people who had previously bought about the demise of British industry - The same bunch that voted for us to join the EEC.

Compare the rise of post war manufacturing in Germany, Japan, and Great Britain.

Discuss!

Hi,
Reading these posts anybody would think that Lucas calapsed and disappeared - The demise of Lucas? How wrong could that be?

Recent history of Lucas
Lucas brought an American company called Varity and became Lucas Varity.
Lucas then merged with another American company TRW.
After 911 TRW was brought by Northrup Grumman and the Automotive side was floated off so it then became TRW Automotive.
TRW has now been brought by ZF.
Through out all these changes it has pretty much been run (until 2016 and ZF) by Lucas Automotive CEO John Plant though CEO during the Varity time was Victor Rice.

Regards
Steve

patrics wrote:Recent history of Lucas
Lucas brought an American company called Varity and became Lucas Varity

Au contraire!
It was billed as a merger but was most definitely a reverse takeover. George Simpson at the helm of Lucas - In the name of shareholder value struck the deal with Mr V.A.RIce of VARIty becoming Cheif Executive - That made them Rich!

It was sold to TRW after a shareholder revolt and promptly broken up - the Lucas name dissappear almost over night.

George Simpson went on to perform wonders at GEC!

The same bunch that voted for us to join the EEC.

No-one voted to join the EEC; the referendum was to join the COMMON MARKET.

Subsequent creeping federalization led to the UK being a member of the EEC.

Bill,
The EEC otherwise known as the Common Market was created by the treaty of Rome in 1957 and membership of it was the result of the vote.

It was renamed the EC in 1993 (Mastricht Treaty) and consumed by the EU in 2009 (Lisbon treaty) whose objectives are quite different.