Hydrolastic Springing - The Design and Development Story

[mab01uk]

The Design and Development Story, as told by Alex Moulton, the Originator of the Hydraulically Interconnected Rubber Springing System used on the Morris 1100 Car:-
https://www.minispares.com/blog/2023/07 ... springing/

Mini Dunlop Suspension, Cones and Hydrolastic Units by Keith Dodd of Minispares:-
"Keith Dodd had always been trying to get Alex Moulton to help in getting the competition hydrolastic units remade early 1980’s and standard units again especially after Rover made them obsolete when stocks run out in 1989 but he had no interest at all saying they were too difficult to manufacture and that he would not part with any drawings or any help in the manufacturing process at any cost. Alex Moulton also reflected on the cost and scrap rate encountered, but my contacts in Rover etc were unaware of any major production problems. Unbeknown to me Dunlop had discontinued making displacers in 1978 and must have suffered any losses themselves as I never had any warning the huge testing equipment and tooling would be scrapped and as sales were quite low the “all time buy” by Rover allowed them to carry on selling them at £27 to Mini Spares and other main dealers for over 10 years without any increase. Rover all time buys were usually 10 years worth of stock holding where they are obliged to keep replacement parts and the tooling was often scrapped (a bad policy for classic car owners but saved companies large amounts of money on storage of machinery or tooling and their replenishment costs which seemed to be good business sense at the time). In 1994 I bought my last 200 displacers sourced by Tony Fitchet who was Rovers scrap and clearance contractor at £52 each. I paid a lot more for odd new units that I could subsequently find afterwards."
https://www.minispares.com/blog/2015/10/02/925/

[richardACS]

As mentioned in the article quite understandable that it was dispensed with - but wouldn't it be some kind of find to come across some NOS....