Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[Willy Warpit]

  On 13/08/2019 at 09:13, rml2345 said:

Incedentally, spotting a Ssangyong Rodius makes you 28% more likely to fit your house with a dormer window. 

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Untrue I already had two dormer windows before I ever saw one

[gm]

  On 14/08/2019 at 18:51, vulgalour said:

Well now I want a bowler hat gear knob.

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[brownnova]

  On 13/08/2019 at 09:13, rml2345 said:

Incedentally, spotting a Ssangyong Rodius makes you 28% more likely to fit your house with a dormer window. 

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A SaangYong Rodius is also more effective than the condom as a form of contraception. 

[MikeR]

  On 15/08/2019 at 07:18, brownnova said:

A SaangYong Rodius is also more effective than the condom as a form of contraception. 

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That must surely be the remit of the Smart car .  try getting your end in one of those !

[dozeydustman]

A certain O.500 powered bus was named so because it was designed to run only on National Benzole fuel. Powering the headless Leyland engine on any other brand is what made them loud, clattery and smokey.

[busmansholiday]

Pedantic point, they were 0.510 engines, but I thought that they were designed by the then Labour government to run on the by-products of coal, to keep miners, steel workers, British Leyland employees and, these days, environmentalists employed for ever.

[dozeydustman]

  On 15/08/2019 at 19:03, busmansholiday said:

Pedantic point, they were 0.510 engines

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I thought they were 510s but my crazy bus mad mate at work was insistent they were 500s.

[New POD]

Legend has it that Lord Austin lived in the Lickey hills on the south side of Longbridge, and his requirement for the Austin seven was that it could get up Rose Hill forward and on its decent could stop before reaching the bottom. 

Legend has it that he got the design team to come to his house every morning and had thier drawing boards installed in his billiard room. 

first of all they designed the Austin Severn,  but it was a bit shit.  So he had all of them apply for jobs at Morris or Ford, where they spent supposed to spend hours taking photos of plans of cars that were great. Unfortunately for him, they all went native, and never returned. so the Seven was built anyway. 

[vulgalour]

Seal's very popular 1990s song, Kiss From a Rose, which was used in the Batman film, was actually about a car park bump involving a special edition Mini.  Not a lot of people know that.

[Parky]

Derek “Red Robbo” Robinson, legendary BL shop steward used to be responsible for naming the colours of the cars.  

“Blaze” was originally named Red Robbo after him, but this was overruled by Michael Edwardes, BL chief who was a notorious arsonist

[Justin Case]

  On 15/08/2019 at 19:18, New POD said:

Legend has it that Lord Austin lived in the Lickey hills on the south side of Longbridge, and his requirement for the Austin seven was that it could get up Rose Hill forward and on its decent could stop before reaching the bottom. 

Legend has it that he got the design team to come to his house every morning and had thier drawing boards installed in his billiard room. 

first of all they designed the Austin Severn,  but it was a bit shit.  So he had all of them apply for jobs at Morris or Ford, where they spent supposed to spend hours taking photos of plans of cars that were great. Unfortunately for him, they all went native, and never returned. so the Seven was built anyway. 

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The Austin Seven was not only designed  on his billiard table but the prototype was actually constructed on it which accounts for its compact dimensions.

His successor Leonard Lord was similarly honoured and as Lord Lord had a long and successful second career as a gospel singer 

[Tamworthbay]

People in white vans have driving licences

[anonymous user]

  On 11/10/2019 at 15:43, Tamworthbay said:

People in white vans have driving licences

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Just not necessarily their own

[Parky]

William Woollard developed a new type of hard wearing wool but was unable to call it “Wool-hard” owing to consumer confusion between TV presenters and yarn

[Sausage5000]

  On 11/10/2019 at 12:43, vulgalour said:

Seal's very popular 1990s song, Kiss From a Rose, which was used in the Batman film, was actually about a car park bump involving a special edition Mini.  Not a lot of people know that.

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No. It was originally called ‘Kiss From a Seat Arose’. And the kiss involved was at 35mph, to Seal’s face.

[MikeR]

the Moose test was introduced to safeguard livestock .....

[Tamworthbay]

  On 11/10/2019 at 18:43, MikeR said:

the Moose test was introduced to safeguard Katie Hopkins .....

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FTFY

[New POD]

  On 11/10/2019 at 18:43, MikeR said:

the Moose test was introduced to make topgear more interesting  .....

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Unfortunately Richard, James and the dickhead didn't die.  Disappointed. 

[Parky]

The Chinese version of the Elk test is called “Dissident re-education test”

[sheffcortinacentre]

Wheeler dealers is factual & watching it makes you an expert on all motoring matters.

[brownnova]

Under the right atmospheric conditions a G-whizz will put accelerate a Lamborghini Huracan from 0-30. 
 

Directly on the equator the atmospheric pressure is such that theoretically the batteries on a G-whizz perform so well that 0-30 is achieved in 0.62 seconds. Sadly the heat is so hot at the equator that no G-whizz bodywork survives so the theory is untested 

[rml2345]

The G-Whizz was actually intended to be a child's electric toy car but someone at the factory confused centimetres and inches. 

[bangernomics]

  On 13/08/2019 at 09:58, richardthestag said:

Rodius is South Korean slang for a sexual practice performed in the presence of Kim Jong-un

Said practice involves a notebook and pencil.

[Parky]

Chips were invented by famed designer Chip Foose while he was restyling a potato.

 

[brownnova]

Stonechip paint actually contains ground down ends of McDonalds fries. 

[quicksilver]

The Ford Fiesta is the best-selling American car in Europe.

That despite being designed and made in Europe and not even sold in the US. I have an American seriously trying to convince me this is true because Ford of Europe has an American parent company with the same name and that means all Fords are American cars as far as they are concerned. Yet Opel when owned by GM and in exactly the same situation was not American because it has a name not used in the US. Illogical.

[New POD]

  On 14/11/2019 at 08:37, quicksilver said:

The Ford Fiesta is the best-selling American car in Europe.

That despite being designed and made in Europe and not even sold in the US. I have an American seriously trying to convince me this is true because Ford of Europe has an American parent company with the same name and that means all Fords are American cars as far as they are concerned. Yet Opel when owned by GM and in exactly the same situation was not American because it has a name not used in the US. Illogical.

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This is not bullshit. 

The omega had a V6 built in Ellesmere Port at a vauxhall plant, and a body shell designed for Holden and built in Oz, where they stuck a V8 built in South Africa in it but when they sold it as a Cadillac Catera, it was seen as an all American flop cause it was too small.  

It was replaced by the Corsa in the UK. 

[ProgRocker]

Ford decided to name their Escort and Fiesta models after the titles of two 'top shelf' smutty magazines. 

Likewise Austin Rover in the 1980s when they replaced their HL specs with Mayfair. 

 

[dozeydustman]

The J in Guy Motors' Big J range stood for Jeremy, as they predicted a day when a journalist with pubes for hair would slag off the British motor industry. 

[martc]

The photo that inspired BMW all those years later.

 

(shamelessly nicked from the Black and White photo thread <<< this bit is true)