Another binge watch

[Redline]

I know a few have been watching project Binky. Have found another slightly more sophisticated series that’s a nice way to wile away the longer evenings. Proper CAD involved rather than Cardboard Aided Desgn.

Don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned here but apologies if it has.

Retropowercars have been doing a Mk1 Escort rebuild with a Cosworth engine for the legendary Gordon Murray.

I know many of us cut our teeth on the Mk1 escort so it’s nice to see one stripped back again.
Some great engineering being put back into it.

View: https://youtu.be/nSiG7oNXC6w


Enjoy - especially @andyglym

 

[andyglym]

I know a few have been watching project Binky. Have found another slightly more sophisticated series that’s a nice way to wile away the longer evenings. Proper CAD involved rather than Cardboard Aided Desgn.

Don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned here but apologies if it has.

Retropowercars have been doing a Mk1 Escort rebuild with a Cosworth engine for the legendary Gordon Murray.

I know many of us cut our teeth on the Mk1 escort so it’s nice to see one stripped back again.
Some great engineering being put back into it.

View: https://youtu.be/nSiG7oNXC6w


Enjoy - especially @andyglym

Great stuff mate

 

[Sean d]

I like the looks of that

 

[Keet]

Need a fix until the next Binky episode, thanks.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

CAD on a Mk1 Escort? Even Ford didn't do that.

 

[Redline]

CAD on a Mk1 Escort? Even Ford didn't do that.

That’s an interesting diversion. Late 60s/early 70s computers were massive and extraordinarily expensive beasts. I bet no design issues got anywhere close to any computers that Ford owned.
Back to drawing offices with lots of boards, squares and isometric projections. Remember those?
Like typing pools - long gone.
Looking at designs of many things nowadays you wouldn’t be able to get them on paper.

 

[Grumps]

One for me that.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

That’s an interesting diversion. Late 60s/early 70s computers were massive and extraordinarily expensive beasts. I bet no design issues got anywhere close to any computers that Ford owned.
Back to drawing offices with lots of boards, squares and isometric projections. Remember those?
Like typing pools - long gone.
Looking at designs of many things nowadays you wouldn’t be able to get them on paper.

Back then the computer would have been bigger than the car.

 

[Robert Wiles]

That’s an interesting diversion. Late 60s/early 70s computers were massive and extraordinarily expensive beasts. I bet no design issues got anywhere close to any computers that Ford owned.
Back to drawing offices with lots of boards, squares and isometric projections. Remember those?
Like typing pools - long gone.
Looking at designs of many things nowadays you wouldn’t be able to get them on paper.

What about sliderules? Remember them?
I cut my teeth in a design office full of drawing boards in the late 1970s. There were no computers anywhere near the engineering department and even pocket calculators were still a bit of a novelty. Designers had to do all their own tolerance analysis long hand.
By the time I retired nearly 40 years later, component drawings were created in 3D CAD with no paper drawings, there were computer tools to do the tolerancing, prototype parts were 3D printed rather than lovingly made by pattern makers, press and mould tools were produced directly from the 3D CAD model by toolmakers in SE Asia. Smart stuff indeed, but somehow not as special - at least to an old codger like me.....

 

[petecossie]

Great viewing, thoroughly enjoying it so far, watched 9 episodes another 7 to go.

Talking of sliderules, I showed my 40year old son my old sliderules last year and he didn't have a clue how to use it or what it was for!

 

[Redline]

Great viewing, thoroughly enjoying it so far, watched 9 episodes another 7 to go.

Talking of sliderules, I showed my 40year old son my old sliderules last year and he didn't have a clue how to use it or what it was for!

Up to 10 myself. Frightening how many hours are put into these things. 350 hours just on the body prep and paintwork. Must be £50k to £75k going into that car I would have thought.

Sliderules. Still used in football of all things. Honestly!
Occasionally you’ll hear of a slide rule pass.

 

[Redline]

Made it to the current last episode of the series and realise these guys are just two miles away as the crow flies (about 6 by road). I could even walk there totally without using a single road. I hear them drafting the court injunction right now

I think they should set up a viewing gallery so we nutters could pay to simply stand and watch them weave their magic.
The next project is a Jag rebuild. Round 2.....

 

[Pingu]

What about sliderules? Remember them?
I cut my teeth in a design office full of drawing boards in the late 1970s. There were no computers anywhere near the engineering department and even pocket calculators were still a bit of a novelty. Designers had to do all their own tolerance analysis long hand.
By the time I retired nearly 40 years later, component drawings were created in 3D CAD with no paper drawings, there were computer tools to do the tolerancing, prototype parts were 3D printed rather than lovingly made by pattern makers, press and mould tools were produced directly from the 3D CAD model by toolmakers in SE Asia. Smart stuff indeed, but somehow not as special - at least to an old codger like me.....

When I was at college, I had to write my own programs in FORTRAN to analyse the stresses and strains on components. The college computer (singular) ran the program overnight, so I could see the results in the morning. A simple pinned bridge would take a day to analyse. There is an app on my phone that can do the same thing in a few seconds (and I don't need to write a single line of code).

Kids today - don't know they're born

 

[Redline]

When I was at college, I had to write my own programs in FORTRAN to analyse the stresses and strains on components. The college computer (singular) ran the program overnight, so I could see the results in the morning. A simple pinned bridge would take a day to analyse. There is an app on my phone that can do the same thing in a few seconds (and I don't need to write a single line of code).

Kids today - don't know they're born

Did FORTRAN using cards. Who’d have thought an elastic band was an essential tool in engineering.
Moved on to writing assembler for microprocessors, Coral66, Pascal, C, Basic then much later Python, Java, C++ and Visual Basic. So many languages and some say I never mastered English.
At 23 I had over £1m over computer development systems using the very first iteration of Ethernet. 12” floppy disks that held barely any data. Over £100k per system. That’s probably getting on for a £1m each in today’s money. And, as you say, your phone could do all that and way more now.
Cars then didn’t have any electronics other than the radio (if you were lucky). Then you look at the programmable control system fitted to this escort build. Totally soft. Child’s play. Off the shelf.

The problem is we don’t have the engineers nor the investment to be world leaders in this stuff any more. By far the best programmers I’ve seen in recent years are all from Asia.

 

[Robert Wiles]

When I was at college, I had to write my own programs in FORTRAN to analyse the stresses and strains on components. The college computer (singular) ran the program overnight, so I could see the results in the morning. A simple pinned bridge would take a day to analyse. There is an app on my phone that can do the same thing in a few seconds (and I don't need to write a single line of code).

Kids today - don't know they're born

FORTRAN. Now there's a name from my college days. Spend ages writing the program, submit it to the computer room, wait overnight for it to be processed only to get the message 'Syntax error on line 132' Another day wasted.....

 

[Pingu]

Did FORTRAN using cards. Who’d have thought an elastic band was an essential tool in engineering.
Moved on to writing assembler for microprocessors, Coral66, Pascal, C, Basic then much later Python, Java, C++ and Visual Basic. So many languages and some say I never mastered English.
At 23 I had over £1m over computer development systems using the very first iteration of Ethernet. 12” floppy disks that held barely any data. Over £100k per system. That’s probably getting on for a £1m each in today’s money. And, as you say, your phone could do all that and way more now.
Cars then didn’t have any electronics other than the radio (if you were lucky). Then you look at the programmable control system fitted to this escort build. Totally soft. Child’s play. Off the shelf.

The problem is we don’t have the engineers nor the investment to be world leaders in this stuff any more. By far the best programmers I’ve seen in recent years are all from Asia.

I think FORTRAN did use card originally, but it was typed script when I used it.

As @Robert Wiles wrote, the program compiled just before it ran. There was no way to pre-check a program other than by carefully reading each line of code and hoping that you hadn't made any mistakes. VISUAL BASIC (which is the only language that I use nowadays) turns the text red if there is an error. No fun there .

I actually wrote a word processing program on a Spectrum that I used to write my mechanical engineering degree thesis.

We were doing mechanical engineering and my mate changed courses to do computer science. Oh, how we laughed. He's the only one of us that made his fortune. He was writing apps for phones fifteen years ago and sold his company to Google for EIGHT figures. Oh, how he laughed . I'm not bitter.