ChrisM
06-22-2008, 11:26 AM
First, I want to thank TMac, Spdrcr5, and Julie (TMac's wife) for putting this whole shindig together. I along with Shuey and CUinaRidge have been to every ROC meet. I think the consensus is that this meet will be hard to top. For those of you who didn't go... All I can say is you missed one heck of a good time!
I met some very nice folks. I could go on and on about how nice the people were at the meet. There were some folks who I had nice conversations with at the meet that rarely ever post. I invite them to join in on the conversation more here during the year.
Now, down to the nitty gritty. This is going to be long but it will not be a waste of your time.
The ELP Tour
For those of you who don't know, it is just about impossible to get a tour of an operating Honda plant. You can't just sign up and go like at a big 3 auto plant. This was one special event. I don't know how TMac pulled this off. I was surprised at the complexity of the operation. I wish I could have taken pictures. I am still amazed at the amount of automation in that plant. There was activity everywhere no matter where you looked. There was so much activity in fact that we had to have a tour guide and a "spotter" for every group. This spotter made sure that we were not run over by one of the automated self guided parts carriers in the plant. They were everywhere scurrying about delivering everything from lug nuts to fenders to whatever. If you zigged when you should have zagged, you might have ended up being picked up by a robotic arm and being welded inside a quarter panel. :eek:
IIRC, the person who gave the presentation at the ELP said that it take about 20 hours to make a vehicle there from the time that they get the panels stamped for the car they are making. There is constant movement once the panels are loaded onto the first jig that holds that parts so that they can be welded together. I found it interesting that the entire engine, transmission, and front suspension are loaded into the CRV, Civic and Element at one time. Installation time of these components including bolting them in is about 20 seconds!
The robotic welding was really something to see. Not only was the precision of the welding a spectacle but so was the timing and synchronization of the whole process. I felt like there should have been some sort of Tchaikovsky piece playing in the background of the plant because all of the welding robots looked like some sort of mechanized ballet when welding and passing parts to each other. I couldn't believe how physically fast that they could move from weld to weld and how graceful they were. They moved fluidly almost like they were alive, not mechanically like one would expect.
Kudos to the folks at the Honda plant for everything that they shared with us. I didn't expect to get to experience what I did. I am grateful.
The TRC (Transportation Research Center)
I'll preface this by saying that I have been a car nut since I was about 13 years old. I remember seeing pictures and reading stories in Road & Track and Car & Driver magazines about high speed road tests being conducted at the TRC's 7.5 mile oval when I was a kid. Names like Ferrari and Lamborghini come to mind. I also remember the article about the Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette that set the top speed record at the TRC of 254.76 mph back in 1988 when I was in college. Ever since I first heard of the TRC, I wanted to go there. That was probably back in 1984 when I was a junior in High School. Yesterday at the age of 40 years old, I got to go!
I didn't go to the TRC before yesterday for lack of trying, you simply cannot get on the grounds at the TRC if you don't work there or short of an act of God or knowing Gary Flint. I grew up not 20 miles from the TRC so driving distance wasn't an issue. You simply cannot get in there. I talked to a person at the adjacent Honda factory who had worked there for 11 years. She said that in her 11 years at Honda, she had never had the opportunity to go to the TRC. They don't generally give tours and if you don't work there or own a plane, you'll never see the tracks. For those of you who didn't get to go, you missed out....
Honda did the rock drop demo, the Ridgeline up on 3 wheels demo, and the Ridgeline on rollers demo like they did at the last ROC meet. They also did a couple of other tests that amazed me.
The fully loaded RL performance test was my favorite. Imagine putting 1000 lbs of lead shot in 40 or so bags in the bed of your Ridgeline. Then load up a driver and a passenger and driving the truck like you stole it on a curvy road. This is exactly what Honda did. On the first lap around the little orange coned course, a heard a lot of spectators comments like, "HOLY SH!T!, DID YOU SEE THAT?" and WTF? They literally drove the truck at what I thought was above the trucks handling limits EMPTY, not with 1000 lbs of non strapped down ballast and a passenger! Those passengers during those hot laps were ROC members!
I remember looking over at the speedometer of the truck as we entered a decreasing radius fairly sharp turn at 70+ MPH! Imagine getting off of a freeway ramp and making a left turn at the bottom of the ramp at 70 mph with a pallet of bricks in the bed without decelerating and you'll get the picture. I had no idea you could do this with a truck let alone one with a half ton of material in the bed. Honda ran this test over and over again for over 3 hours on the same set of tires with the same truck. It was amazing that any vehicle could withstand that sort of beating. I noticed that the driver was driving the truck on the sidewalls at certain points on the course due to the heavily loaded cornering he was doing. I was totally blown away by the demonstration. What amazed me the most was probably the lack of eventfulness of my ride. The Ridgeline was composed the entire 2 laps I rode despite the tires smoking and the body rolling. I looked at the truck after the 3 hours of torture. There were no body wrinkles or distortions in the truck whatsoever. I figured that the truck body would have been bent by all of this abuse but it came out unscathed. I wouldn't ever dream of try driving like that with my truck around that course at those speeds with the EMPTY let alone with a half a ton in the bed! It was incredible!
They also did a test on a 20% grade that simulated ice under one side of the truck and solid ground under the other. Imagine trying to pull back onto an icy road from a non icy shoulder on a hill and you'll get the picture. The Ridgeline made it up this hill not only going forward but in REVERSE. They had a Toyota Tacoma for comparison which could not perform this same feat in either forward or reverse.
The last big test was the water crossing test. Honda repeatedly drove a Ridgeline thru a water tank with about 18" of water with a wave going up to the top of the hood about 8 times. Joe (Csimo) along with Frank (Ridgeln) and I got to actually ride in the truck with the driver thru the water tank after everyone else left. It was totally uneventful. We drove in, you could hear the water going by the doors and we drove out. I was impressed.
I really wish that I had the opportunity to take pictures but we were not allowed to take pictures. Frank (Ridgeln) was the only person who was allowed. I'm patiently waiting to see what he posts.
Last night, (Saturday) we had a nice sit down dinner at Dave & Busters. The meet sponsors gave out what I would consider a plethora of very generous prizes. I had to pick up my son at my Mom's house back in Cincinnati so I had to leave but I'm sure that I missed some great conversations with some really nice folks. I would also mention that I appreciate the very generous gift that Ondlinks gave me after the dinner. It will go to good use!
I could go on and on and on but I'll leave my impressions at that. It was one helluva weekend and ranks in the top 3 automotive related weekends in my life. The other 2 in my top 3 are a trip to the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany and a ride in a WRC rally car at speed on a closed course. This trip even surpassed the ride that I got in a RUF Porsche at 160 mph on the Autobahn in Germany.
THE WEEKEND WAS A TOTAL BLAST!
To those who didn't go, there is always next year!
I met some very nice folks. I could go on and on about how nice the people were at the meet. There were some folks who I had nice conversations with at the meet that rarely ever post. I invite them to join in on the conversation more here during the year.
Now, down to the nitty gritty. This is going to be long but it will not be a waste of your time.
The ELP Tour
For those of you who don't know, it is just about impossible to get a tour of an operating Honda plant. You can't just sign up and go like at a big 3 auto plant. This was one special event. I don't know how TMac pulled this off. I was surprised at the complexity of the operation. I wish I could have taken pictures. I am still amazed at the amount of automation in that plant. There was activity everywhere no matter where you looked. There was so much activity in fact that we had to have a tour guide and a "spotter" for every group. This spotter made sure that we were not run over by one of the automated self guided parts carriers in the plant. They were everywhere scurrying about delivering everything from lug nuts to fenders to whatever. If you zigged when you should have zagged, you might have ended up being picked up by a robotic arm and being welded inside a quarter panel. :eek:
IIRC, the person who gave the presentation at the ELP said that it take about 20 hours to make a vehicle there from the time that they get the panels stamped for the car they are making. There is constant movement once the panels are loaded onto the first jig that holds that parts so that they can be welded together. I found it interesting that the entire engine, transmission, and front suspension are loaded into the CRV, Civic and Element at one time. Installation time of these components including bolting them in is about 20 seconds!
The robotic welding was really something to see. Not only was the precision of the welding a spectacle but so was the timing and synchronization of the whole process. I felt like there should have been some sort of Tchaikovsky piece playing in the background of the plant because all of the welding robots looked like some sort of mechanized ballet when welding and passing parts to each other. I couldn't believe how physically fast that they could move from weld to weld and how graceful they were. They moved fluidly almost like they were alive, not mechanically like one would expect.
Kudos to the folks at the Honda plant for everything that they shared with us. I didn't expect to get to experience what I did. I am grateful.
The TRC (Transportation Research Center)
I'll preface this by saying that I have been a car nut since I was about 13 years old. I remember seeing pictures and reading stories in Road & Track and Car & Driver magazines about high speed road tests being conducted at the TRC's 7.5 mile oval when I was a kid. Names like Ferrari and Lamborghini come to mind. I also remember the article about the Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette that set the top speed record at the TRC of 254.76 mph back in 1988 when I was in college. Ever since I first heard of the TRC, I wanted to go there. That was probably back in 1984 when I was a junior in High School. Yesterday at the age of 40 years old, I got to go!
I didn't go to the TRC before yesterday for lack of trying, you simply cannot get on the grounds at the TRC if you don't work there or short of an act of God or knowing Gary Flint. I grew up not 20 miles from the TRC so driving distance wasn't an issue. You simply cannot get in there. I talked to a person at the adjacent Honda factory who had worked there for 11 years. She said that in her 11 years at Honda, she had never had the opportunity to go to the TRC. They don't generally give tours and if you don't work there or own a plane, you'll never see the tracks. For those of you who didn't get to go, you missed out....
Honda did the rock drop demo, the Ridgeline up on 3 wheels demo, and the Ridgeline on rollers demo like they did at the last ROC meet. They also did a couple of other tests that amazed me.
The fully loaded RL performance test was my favorite. Imagine putting 1000 lbs of lead shot in 40 or so bags in the bed of your Ridgeline. Then load up a driver and a passenger and driving the truck like you stole it on a curvy road. This is exactly what Honda did. On the first lap around the little orange coned course, a heard a lot of spectators comments like, "HOLY SH!T!, DID YOU SEE THAT?" and WTF? They literally drove the truck at what I thought was above the trucks handling limits EMPTY, not with 1000 lbs of non strapped down ballast and a passenger! Those passengers during those hot laps were ROC members!
I remember looking over at the speedometer of the truck as we entered a decreasing radius fairly sharp turn at 70+ MPH! Imagine getting off of a freeway ramp and making a left turn at the bottom of the ramp at 70 mph with a pallet of bricks in the bed without decelerating and you'll get the picture. I had no idea you could do this with a truck let alone one with a half ton of material in the bed. Honda ran this test over and over again for over 3 hours on the same set of tires with the same truck. It was amazing that any vehicle could withstand that sort of beating. I noticed that the driver was driving the truck on the sidewalls at certain points on the course due to the heavily loaded cornering he was doing. I was totally blown away by the demonstration. What amazed me the most was probably the lack of eventfulness of my ride. The Ridgeline was composed the entire 2 laps I rode despite the tires smoking and the body rolling. I looked at the truck after the 3 hours of torture. There were no body wrinkles or distortions in the truck whatsoever. I figured that the truck body would have been bent by all of this abuse but it came out unscathed. I wouldn't ever dream of try driving like that with my truck around that course at those speeds with the EMPTY let alone with a half a ton in the bed! It was incredible!
They also did a test on a 20% grade that simulated ice under one side of the truck and solid ground under the other. Imagine trying to pull back onto an icy road from a non icy shoulder on a hill and you'll get the picture. The Ridgeline made it up this hill not only going forward but in REVERSE. They had a Toyota Tacoma for comparison which could not perform this same feat in either forward or reverse.
The last big test was the water crossing test. Honda repeatedly drove a Ridgeline thru a water tank with about 18" of water with a wave going up to the top of the hood about 8 times. Joe (Csimo) along with Frank (Ridgeln) and I got to actually ride in the truck with the driver thru the water tank after everyone else left. It was totally uneventful. We drove in, you could hear the water going by the doors and we drove out. I was impressed.
I really wish that I had the opportunity to take pictures but we were not allowed to take pictures. Frank (Ridgeln) was the only person who was allowed. I'm patiently waiting to see what he posts.
Last night, (Saturday) we had a nice sit down dinner at Dave & Busters. The meet sponsors gave out what I would consider a plethora of very generous prizes. I had to pick up my son at my Mom's house back in Cincinnati so I had to leave but I'm sure that I missed some great conversations with some really nice folks. I would also mention that I appreciate the very generous gift that Ondlinks gave me after the dinner. It will go to good use!
I could go on and on and on but I'll leave my impressions at that. It was one helluva weekend and ranks in the top 3 automotive related weekends in my life. The other 2 in my top 3 are a trip to the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany and a ride in a WRC rally car at speed on a closed course. This trip even surpassed the ride that I got in a RUF Porsche at 160 mph on the Autobahn in Germany.
THE WEEKEND WAS A TOTAL BLAST!
To those who didn't go, there is always next year!