If you've ever taken a look at the superb Hemmings Blog you'll be familiar with a game they play called Degrees of Separation.
The idea is that blog extraordinaire Dan Strohl chooses two utterly different makes of car, and asks people to find a link. The expert who can link the two vehicles in the least number of degrees of separation, wins. It looks like a lot of fun, and I was wondering whether it could work on BigLorryBlog too.
To give you an idea of how it works, let me walk you through an example that recently appeared on Hemmings.
Dan Strohl asked whether anyone out there could link a Jowett to a Ferrari - and incredibly, quite a few people could. Here are some examples:
Andre Roy managed it in 10 degrees:
1.Jowett made parts for Blackburn & General Aircraft Company and was eventually take over by them.
2.Blackburn was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley.
3.Hawker Siddeley merged with others to become British Aerospace.
4.British Aerospace merged various times to become BAE Systems,
5.BAE Systems is a partner in the Eurofighter
6.Another partner in the Eurofighter is Alenia Aeronautica
7.Alenia Aeronautica is the successor to Aeritalia
8.Aeritalia was formed by the merger of Aerfer and Fiat Aviazione
9.Fiat Aviazione was part of the FIAT empire
10.The FIAT empire also now controls Ferrari.
Dave was able to link them in 6 degrees:
1.Well Jowett's factories were bought by International Harvester of all people
2.International Harvester did work with Raymond Loewy
who also designed the Avanti
3.The Avanti used various engines including a Chevrolet V8
4.GM owned Chevrolet
5.GM paid a large sum of money not to buy Fiat
6.Fiat controls Ferrari
And Kit Foster did it in four degrees:
1.Ferrari is under Fiat rule.
2.In the 1980s, Morgan used Fiat twin-cam engines.
3.Earlier, Morgan had used Meadows gearboxes.
4. Jowett used Meadows gearboxes until 1951.
Have you got the idea yet? Well let's play.
For a pie, how many degrees of separation are there between the Kalmar and the Iveco Stralis?
And similar to the 'Kevin Bacon theory', or 'how many handshakes are you from the American President' (I claim 3!)
Anyway, all great fun but I've no idea what the links are here. Maybe ZF transmissions and/or steering? Cummins engineering??
Oh I like this!
Kalmar exist now as part of Cargotec making material handling equipment amongst other things. Some Kalmar equipment has been powered by Deutz engines.
Deutz engines were formerly exclusively used in Magirus Deutz trucks....
...And the Iveco Stalis is built in the former Magirus factory in Ulm.
So Three Degrees (!)
1. Kalmar is a city in Sweden.
2. In Sweden, traffic used to drive on the left with left-hand-drive cars, so the driver sat closest to the edge of the road.
3. Iveco trucks are basically Italian.
4. In Italy, trucks used to drive on the right but had right-hand-drive, so the driver sat closest to the edge of the road.
Alternatively...............
1. Kalmar tractors use Cummins engines.
2. Iveco in Australia make the Iveco Powerstar.
3. The Powerstar is available with Cummins engines.
1. Kalmar tractors use Cummins engines.
2. Iveco and Cummins (and New Holland) have announced a joint venture to produce new series of diesel engines
Or is this not close enough?
Wow! I'm impressed.