Refusing a Toast Only to Drink a Forfeit

The day after the meeting, Old Qiu assigned a young technician, Xiao Zhu, to Li Ye to help him handle the approval procedures with the transportation authorities.

"Li Ye, these are the drawings and documents our department just revised. The prototype should be modified by tomorrow or the day after."

"So fast?"

Li Ye took the drawings and looked them over. Sure enough, the width of the brake drums and brake shoes had been increased. The Technical Department's efficiency could only be called "lightning-fast."

Xiao Zhu said nonchalantly, "Technical issues like this are minor. I could finish revising them in one night."

"You could finish it in one night. That really is impressive."

Li Ye shook his head with a smile. Although he knew that civilian mechanical design in this era was not so rigorous, he still felt somewhat helpless.

By rights, any modification to a car component required strict technical verification and practical testing.

But judging by the way Xiao Zhu and the others worked, they were truly far too casual.

You finished the drawings in one night, but would they actually work or not?

After joining the company, Li Ye had carefully researched the design process behind the unit's flagship product—the Beijing 130.

According to several veteran workers, the Beijing 130 had not been "designed." It had been "tested" into existence.

They first used several imported vehicles as references, then copied the gourd by looking at the gourd, determining data such as the wheelbase, track width, and the caster and camber angles of the front and rear axles. Then they built a prototype and tested it on the road.

If problems such as shaking or drifting appeared, they made all kinds of adjustments. Once they adjusted it to an optimal value, the design was considered successful.

Several decades