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Worst chod for car sickness?


scooters

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Last night I had to take the ceramic bus for a drive round the bathroom thanks to a dodgey tummy virus. As I knelt there, haveing a word with Mr Shanks, my mind wandered to chod - as it often does and I recalled the horrible car sickness I suffered from as a kid - my sisters did too.

 

The family cars up until the mid 80's used to be the culprits they were:

Citroen Ami 8

Citroen DS Safari

Mk 4 Cortina Estate

Volvo 245 DL

 

In friends cars it was worse - my uncle had a Maxi and Granny a Datsun 120Y Coupe...the other Granny had a Mini Clubman and the other uncle a Marina.

 

I recall the horrible sense of car sickness and the gawd awful strawberry flavour of the Joy Rides fed to us - they made you feel worse - OK you wouldn't be sick but you wanted to be - badly and a headache would come on as well.

 

Things got a bit better when the 245 turned up but it wasn't until the replacement, a 240 DL with fuel injection turned up and the other car which was a BX 17 TDi that I actually recall us no longer being sick.

 

I suspect strongly that it was the carbs of the older cars that caused it - the constant smell of petrol which I can still get with the carbed BX Meteor when starting - Fuel injection seemed to put a stop to this. The 245 had a carb but the 240 EFI.

 

My wife still gets a bit car sick on windy roads - the Subaru, Scenic, 940 and 850 were all fine with her but the Insignia and Mk2 Gti were a nightmare...she ends up getting car sick in the back seat of anything except for an XJ40

 

Last time I got motion sickness was in the back of a classic Saab turbo 900 on the Col de L'iseron near Grenoble - mind you my mate who was driving showed little consideration for the passengers.

 

My wee boy has only been sick twice - once in the back of the 850 - that was after a very windy highland road for 2 hours and once in the back of the 240 on a very hot day last summer driving back from Durham

 

I think the worst journey eva had to be London to Edinburgh in 1977 in my uncles Maxi...I even wretch thinking about it now.

 

As a driver, the worse journey was taking 16 10 year olds in a Mk1 Sherpa Mini bus from Aberdeen to Ardnamurchan (a vey long drive on highland roads for those of you who don't know the geog) It took us about 8 hours wit the B series chugging away and no PAS. I recall one boy vomming out of the front passenger window - the vom then coming into the van via a rear open window - hitting another kid in the face who promptly vommed all over his neighbour - this resulted in 10/16 kids all vomming in the space of a minute and me swearing a lot - fortunately it was all vinyl inside so we stoppped by a loch, took out all the luggage and used buckets of water to sluice the inside of the van out - let it dry and got back on the road. I then made sure I stopped every 40 mins and did not allow them any sweets - fluids only. Really - kids these days don't know they are born!

 

 

Does anybody else have any childhood chod memories of car sickness and any cars that were especially good - or bad for it.

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I recall one boy vomming out of the front passenger window - the vom then coming into the van via a rear open window - hitting another kid in the face who promptly vommed all over his neighbour - this resulted in 10/16 kids all vomming in the space of a minute and me swearing a lot - fortunately ...

 

Fortunately ?

 

I'm impressed you could get anything positive out of that lot!

 

Back to your point, I blame vinyl interiors & the smell therefrom.

We had a Morry Minor & my Grand-dad had a Velox both of which I was impressively sick in.

They my old man bought a semi fabric Maxi - puking over & done with for ever.

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It's very rare I get car sickness. Not had it for years......

 

 

.... Unless I have to go somewhere in a Vectra. This results in my feeling very queasy indeed. I don't know if it's the dire ride quality, but suspect that has a lot to do with it. They seem utterly devoid of damping and were just as bad when new. The SRi Wasn't as bad but was still an affront to the art of suspension design. I despise the way they alternate between floating and crashing over bumps at random. Sit in the back of an early Vectra on the motorway and it is like being on a bloody see-saw lubricated with gravel. How they ever got signed off as fit for production I'll never know.

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I blame vinyl interiors & the smell therefrom

Agreed. 1974 Renault 12 with tan vinyl = feeling horribly moby, especially in the hot summer of 1976; 1977 Renault 14 with blue cloth (v posh) = feeling ok. Both equally bad at bouncing around corners like a fart in a jar.

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I don't know that vinyl interiors, or carburettors, can be blamed; I and many others grew up with both, as family cars had nothing else for years. In fact I still drive a car with both! It only makes me sick because of the stupid transmission, and the way it's sticking to my driveway.

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I blame vinyl interiors & the smell therefrom

Agreed. 1974 Renault 12 with tan vinyl = feeling horribly moby, especially in the hot summer of 1976

Ditto. Dad's Renault 16 with its floaty ride and bouncy grey vinyl rear seats, combined with the windows that couldn't be wound down far enough to stick my head out caused a few 'accidents' when I was wee. :(:oops:

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I have only been car sick once, that was in a CX estate that my folks borrowed while their car was being repaired.

 

It was like being in a spaceship, so smooth and little gravity. BLEEEEEEURRRGHHHHHHH!

 

Hydro Citroens are going to come high up the list! A mate of my dad's had to sell his DS after a couple of weeks of ownership, 'cos his wife couldn't get to the end of the street in it.

I couldn't wind the back window of my dad's Cortina down quickly enough, as my recent can of Fanta made a bid for freedom. It was equally messy inside and out. Impressive.

My sister managed to coat most of the back seat area of dad's Mk2 Cav Estate in breakfast 'residue' somewhere near Exeter one day. She's never been back since.

But my middle son takes the biscuit. I have never, and I mean never met anyone who can spew as readily in a car as he does. The only motor I've owned in his 11 years, that he was ok with, was the LDV minibus. He's blown his chunks at the far end of the street (approx 500yds), and it took 3 stops to get from here to Blackford for the custom car show last year. And that was with Joy Rides. Our joint worst cars, by Cammy's Scale are Mk3 Astra and Renault Megane (although the R19 wasn't too bad!)

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Mind, car sickness (motion sickness) is caused by the body being rocked at a frequency of half a Herz that seems to confuse the brain in thinking it's getting poisoned and decides to make you puke to fix it.

 

I got sick once because we were on a log journey and I was sitting in the back of the family Panda reading comics - the reading seemed to be the cause as I never got it whe just looking out the windows.

 

I can imagine why some old Citroens might cause this but I've never had it. My ex G-froend used to get a bit sick in the CX on our long drives to archaeological sites around the place but only when I was driving with enthusiasm around the high and twisties.

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Yep, reading in the car will bring it on if you are prone anyway. For me it was my dad's Corsair 2000E and a works Montego in the mid 1980's, hateful experiences.

 

Most recent experience of fairly mild nausea was in a mate's SD1 a couple of months ago, he was smoking at the time as well though. Nice car however.

 

Mind you, I shouldn't be bothered by it anymore as I sailed across the Atlantic a fair few times when I was 16 and was REALLY sick for a solid week. Beats the shit out of car sickness, trust me.

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Isn't it something to do with looking out the side windows as well, just like being on a ship, if you watch the horizon sway up and down the chunks will be forthcoming?

I don't remember howfing nearly so much when I was allowed into the front seat.

 

I've now got a cast-iron stomach when it comes to motion sickness. At work I used to have to go on the ferry to Orkney and there were some right rough days on that boat! :shock:

Couple of times I got free breakfast, anything I wanted simply because no-one was eating and they were going to have to chuck it all in the bin, so I remember weaving about in the restaurant, trying not to spill a plate piled high with full English-style grub as the ship rocked back and forth. :mrgreen:

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