Autoshite cliches, myths and old wives tales...

[twosmoke300]

beetle engines are only held in with 4 bolts and can be taken out in 10mins!

[Lacquer Peel]

Old cars have already been made?

 

 

I'd like to believe that one as myth, but I work in environmental research and no matter how I try and fiddle life cycle assessments into my favour, I've never been able to make an old car look more environmentally friendly than a new one if you take the whole life cycle of production, use and recycling/disposal into account. Even the Prius. All the 'rubbish' you think goes into the batteries and the environmental 'devastation' that the internet depicts pales into insignificance when you look at the what steel industries of China and Brazil cause, where most steel comes from.

 

Old cars have already been made though?

[dugong]

Old cars have already been made?

 

 

Old cars have already been made though?

 

My thoughts precisely. You're replacing a car that's already been made [and still exists and works] with a car that hasn't [and doesn't until the order is executed].

 

Without wishing to sound like a tin-foil twitching lefty, why did those Scrappage cars have to be baled? Couldn't they have been used [at the very least] for spares? Or sold on as a subsidised price for people desperate for cheap wheels? (controversial I know).

Squashing them up and sending their remains on the long haul to China defeats the whole object of what the scheme was supposedly about - not that it was some bullshit attempt to swell the government's coppers under the guise of caring for the environment, heavens no.

 

What's that? Every manufacturer put their prices up by £2000 per model?! You what?!

[Junkman]

The Jaguar E-Type is a stunningly beautiful looking car, the Citroen DS, too.

The Rover P6 front suspension was designed the way it is to provide enough room for the turbine engine that was supposed to go in it.

Mercedes pioneered the diesel passenger car.

[MrDuke]

How exactly do you factor in the air & water pollution caused by container ships which transport new cars, or major car components, between continents? You can't break it down into fractions, based on how many gallons of fuel oil are allocated to each transported car/part, because the entire ship would still be used, however many cars were on board. And how do the present Brazilian & Chinese steel industries relate to old cars? If I need a replacement panel, I'll get one from another car in a scrappy, not phone up the maker and ask them to press me a new one from Chinese steel.

And, to repeat the above posts, how do you compare a completed manufacturing process with a potential one?

It seems that eco-figures, however mathematically they're calculated, are largely based on statistics that can never be verified, and which in many cases are purely hypothetical anyway.

 

And on a similar point, assuming that used veg oil is unavailable, can someone explain to me how ripping a non-sustainable resource from the earth, transporting it thousands of miles and putting it through a polluting refinery, is "more ethical" than growing a sustainable plant crop, squeezing out the natural oil, transporting it a hundred miles or so then using it the same way? I'm aware lots of people are starving, but 1) that's down to their politicians' level of corruption, not a lack of food production globally, and 2) I don't believe that rapeseed or sunflower seeds would really do them much good alone.

[rml2345]

The Rover P6 front suspension was designed the way it is to provide enough room for the turbine engine that was supposed to go in it.

 

I always hoped that this one was true as it's a great story and makes the P6 seem even more glamorous and advanced than it already was. It's also a good excuse to show people cutaway drawings and exploded diagrams of the Rover P6's front suspension. 

 

Myth: All the J reg Protons must be saved.

Fact: All the J reg Protons must be saved. 

[oman5]

I always hoped that this one was true as it's a great story and makes the P6 seem even more glamorous and advanced than it already was. It's also a good excuse to show people cutaway drawings and exploded diagrams of the Rover P6's front suspension. 

 

 

I thought it WAS true. why else would they make it that way?

[Junkman]

1. Because they could.

2. Spen King's reasoning was that the bulkhead is the most solid structure of a monocoque, hence he braced the front suspension against it.

3. As an added bonus the front structure could be left fairly soft with defined folds, so it would act as a crumple zone in frontal accidents.

4. The steering gear could be mounted at the bulkhead, thus eliminating the need for a collapsible steering column.

[Richard]

I thought the gas turbine prototype was completely different at the front end. I think I'm remembering that from a 1986 issue of PC though, so either my memory or the PC article could be wrong.

[Junkman]

The P6 gas turbine prototype was totally unique and it were the test results with that prototype that finally lead to Rover's decision not to further pursue the idea for production cars. Several big manufacturers experimented with turbine cars at the time and they all abandoned the concept for the same reasons by the early to mid Sixties.

 

BTW:

 

Myth: Chrysler built the most turbine cars of evah.

Phakt: Rover did.

[ProgRocker]

According to the B52s in 1989: a Chrysler can seat about 20

 

(So hurry up and bring your juke box money!)  

[Richard]

I picked up two hitch-hikers in my Chrysler Sunbeam when there were already six of us in it. It made the steering nice and light.

[inconsistant]

You can get to wales in a Mini... I once had the wife AND the mother-in-law in mine.

[sheffcortinacentre]

i know of several lhd mk3 cortina's.

[rml2345]

According to the B52s in 1989: a Chrysler can seat about 20

 

(So hurry up and bring your juke box money!)  

Only if it's as big as a whale... 

[twosmoke300]

All Vtecs are fast !!

[saucedoctor]

Rover VVC is the same system as VTEC.

All Rover 75s have BMW engines

Rover 75 floorpan is the same as a E39 5 Series

Jaguar X Types are Mondeos

BMW took the RDX60 design (Rover 35) and made the original 1 series. (Actually, this might be true)

[twosmoke300]

VTEC KICKS IN YO !

[Junkman]

i know of several lhd mk3 cortina's.

 

I know that thousands existed. Austria was full of them in the Seventies.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The P6 gas turbine prototype was totally unique and it were the test results with that prototype that finally lead to Rover's decision not to further pursue the idea for production cars. Several big manufacturers experimented with turbine cars at the time and they all abandoned the concept for the same reasons by the early to mid Sixties.

 

BTW:

 

Myth: Chrysler built the most turbine cars of evah.

Phakt: Rover did.

 

 

When you say most do you mean different models or actual higher number of cars?

I know Chrysler supposedly destroyed most of them but I think they had 50 or so out on test with fleet users and the public, whereas I thought only one of each Rover was ever made,albeit most if not all still exist.

[Cavcraft]

What happened to the rumour that Renault were pulling the Megane, Laguna and Espace from their UK range due to shit sales and even worse reputation?

 

I've seen a couple of the latest sporty Meganes and they look brilliant!

[Junkman]

Different models. Chrysler built 55 of the 1964 Turbine cars alone (5 prototypes and 50 'production' cars) and this quantity of one single type hasn't been topped yet.
Chrysler didn't allegedly destroy most of them, they did in fact scrap them after the evaluation period - for tax and liability reasons. Only nine remain and six of those have the engines deliberately disabled.
However, Rover built altogether eight different turbine cars, whereas Chrysler comes in second with seven - well, and a truck, if that counts.

All Rover turbine cars survive and George Huebner, Chrysler's primary turbine engineer, always openly admitted that he was inspired by the first Rover prototype.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Do any of the Rovers still run? I know that at least one of the Chryslers does because I've seen a couple of magazine articles. I've seen a couple of Rovers at Gaydon and maybe The Science Museum when I was a kid, although I get confused between the LeMans cars and the BRM.

[rml2345]

Dunno about the Rovers but the Leyland gas turbine truck still runs.

[oman5]

Jay Leno has one of the 3 running chrysler gas turbine cars. gr9 looking machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSBpd1GFUP0

[quicksilver]

Do any of the Rovers still run? I know that at least one of the Chryslers does because I've seen a couple of magazine articles. I've seen a couple of Rovers at Gaydon and maybe The Science Museum when I was a kid, although I get confused between the LeMans cars and the BRM.

When I went to Gaydon a couple of years ago both T3 and T4 were taxed (very few cars there are) so that would suggest they are indeed in running order, I would love to see them on the road.

[Junkman]

Rover T3 and T4 happily survive in running condition. All others were retired, but not made deliberately unusable, so who knows?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

What happened to the rumour that Renault were pulling the Megane, Laguna and Espace from their UK range due to shit sales and even worse reputation?

 

I've seen a couple of the latest sporty Meganes and they look brilliant!

It's not actually a rumour ,they stopped selling Lagunas,Espaces,the Wind thing ,that odd 4x4 and whatever their version of the Note was about 2 years ago.

The current range is mostly Megane variants plus the Twingo and Clio.

[gary_davidson]

It's not actually a rumour ,they stopped selling Lagunas,Espaces,the Wind thing ,that odd 4x4 and whatever their version of the Note was about 2 years ago.

The current range is mostly Megane variants plus the Twingo and Clio.

plus 3 electric cars, anybody seen a Fluence ZE on the on the road yet?

[dollywobbler]

The Rover-BRM turbine race car is up and running again.