My engineer brother started college at GMI (General Motors Institute). 6 months of class followed by 6 in the factory each semester. He went on to work for ASC. He would come in to family functions with a new pre-production car to drive and report on. One such endeavor was a Fiero with 4 wheel steering - the drive line in those (if memory serves me) was the front wheel drive clip from a Citation mounted as the mid engine of the Fiero. To accomplish this, GM replaced the steering rack with solid mounted tie rods. ASC simply swapped the steering linkage back in for the 4 wheel steering exercise. The issue was getting the front and back steering to respond sharper at slow speeds (for parking etc) but with slower response ratio at speed for stability. At the end of the tests, they put it back to stock, he bought the car and years later he sold it to me. With the convertible tops, ASC would engineer them, set up their conversion facility next to the manufacturer's main assembly factory. Cars slated for conversion to convertibles would go a certain distance during assembly and when the time was right, travel over to ASC for top mods, then back to the line for final assembly. Typically after this arrangement came up to snuff, ASC would fold their facility into the manufacturer's and move on to the next car company. That's one of the main reasons convertibles come a year or 2 later. They sell the base models while ramping up the new convertible line.
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