We decided to concentrate on the following products.
DRIVER CONTROLS - Pedal box assembly, Handbrake lever, Gearshift Mechanisms (Manual and Auto)
SUSPENSION LINKS (Upper arms, wishbones, panard rod, etc.)
Where profitable, we would retain certain high volume non-strategic products such as the Valeo Clutch assembly until run-out. By now, we were assembling the complete clutch assembly including, clutch housing (diagram spring, pressure plate and driven plate for Valeo). This lasted for several years until Valeo rightly so, took it back in-house. It was a good and profitable partnership. I met some good Valeo people, learning a great deal and admiring the French and their excellent engineering skills.
Jaguar XJ pedal example
When I saw the proposed Jaguar XJ6 brake and clutch pedals, I was astounded! Weighty, costly, old-fashioned machined hot stampings. On a high performance sports saloon. They would be more at home on a tractor! Or a James Watt steam engine! I asked Leon to come up with hollow pedals. The strength of any stressed structure is concentrated near or at the surface of elemental structures (beams, struts, torsional elements) especially those subject to bending, flexing, under tensile and sometimes, compressive loads. Witness the alloy tube bicycle frame, the space frame structure of a beam, bridge, roof structure, aircraft or sports/racing car, composed of tubes, cast iron columns etc.
We did a lot of development work, built test rigs, measured and analysed the results. Perfected and improved. The final results looked excellent, as did the products. Slick and lean. (We robot welded the main seam. The website home page shows the robot welding the Jaguar brake pedal prototype). The weld was perfect, fit for purpose and lower cost than the stampings. I had made a balance beam showing one stamped pedal, balanced the weight of two Rearsby designed hollow pedals. The Gallery contains a photo of this balance beam. A great success. Jaguar had not asked us to do this. The Jaguar product engineers loved it. More work for the buyers! Dear oh dear. My oh my!