When Colnago introduced their straight blade Precisa fork in the very late 1980s, they had Ferrari perform testing on it and their traditional, curved rake fork. Reportedly, the Precisa fork had superior vibration absorption and better stability on uneven surfaces. They claimed this improved headset life expectancy and resulted in greater comfort, control and safety. I would have suspected some weight savings but none was mentioned. Of course, they didn't mention the cost savings afforded by eliminating one process from the blade manufacturing operation. This would initially have been offset by the tooling costs for a new crown but there would have been long term savings.