Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[chaseracer]

All UK-made Nissans have 20p welded into the handbrake mechanism.

 

What a coincidence!  

 

Ryton-built Peugeot 405s had the exact same feature, especially the white ones.  Due to the popularity of this fine mid-range model, the workforce decided (following a properly constituted OMOV secret ballot) to continue the practice once the twenty centime coins, previously sourced from Poissy or Sochaux, had run out.

[cros]

This thread is still as fresh and amusing as when it started

[pshome]

Tagora's are shite

[richardthestag]

The Saab 93 was never originally intended to have a reverse gear. The driver had to switch off the engine, reverse the polarity to the battery and then fire up the engine again in the opposite direction. This is backed up by the push me pull me design of the car which was always designed to be operated in either direction. Even the concept of rear seat passengers calling out direction instructions to the rear facing driver didnt faze those crazy Swedes.

 

Although Saab's shenanigans were finally brought to a halt by all round spoilsport Mary Whitehouse, the idea was briefly revisited by Citroen in the late 1990s

[vulgalour]

Mary Whitehouse was wholly responsible for the development and production of the Daihatsu Charade.  She will never tell you this, even when drunk.

[bub2006]

All 1994-2003 Vauxhalls were fitted with a homing device to bring them home to roost in Chester. Sadly, many have gone astray and been bridged by people who just didn't understand what these old cars were doing wandering aimlessly around such cultural hubs as Harrogate and Milton Keynes.

Could that explain why I couldn't get out of wilmslow the other day in my vectra?

[brownnova]

In the early 70s Talbot did an experiment with the use of invisibility paint, which was designed to react with sunlight after around 10-15 years and turn the cars invisible.

 

The project was shelved as a silly idea, but thousands of litres of the paint had already been manufactured. Rather than destroy the paint as he was told to a young work experience boy hid it in the basement, and removed the labels.

 

10 years later the paint was discovered and used liberally on Tagoras and Ranchos. After 15 years the paint reacted with the sunlight and the cars disappeared.

 

And that's why it's so hard to find a Tagora or a Rancho in the Uk...

[vulgalour]

If you spend long enough wet sanding a Princess you get an Allegro.

[Parky]

If you spend long enough wet sanding Princess Anne, you get a Reliant Scimitar

[PiperCub]

The Mitsubishi (then 'Colt') Starion was actually called the "Stallion" but the Japanese have such trouble with pronouncing the letter 'L' that after a less than smooth press launch, the new name stuck as it was less embarassing than the truth.

 

 

I was told that many years ago by a guy so drunk I could hardly see him.

[PiperCub]

Fray Bentos is actually a Cuban dictator

 

And Hertz Van Rental was the substitute goalkeeper for the 2014 dutch world cup campaign.

[Tamworthbay]

Vauxhall haven't made cars since the 1960s, every one since then has been made by a collection of all the other makers and are given away to make every other car on the road look less shite.

[vulgalour]

Ssangyong cars are all designed by committee.

 

Aixams are designed in a shed in Wolverhampton by husband and wife team, Fred and Enid.  Originally, Fred and Enid worked under the moniker of Ogle and have been in the small car designing game for 60 years.  It's the only way they can keep up with Enid's Bingo addiction.

[Junkman]

Old Fords are good cars and well worth the money paid for them today.

[Parky]

When Ford Germany launched their Taunus project, they used the code name "Project Cardinal". It is well known that Ford UK then codenamed the Cortina "Project Archbishop" purely because it outranked a Cardinal.

 

What is less well known is Ford of Germany used the codename "Project Dagenham is Gay" for the Transit facelift and Ford UK hit back with "Project tiny penis Cologne" for the Granada Mark 3.

 

At this point Henry Ford junior sat down with the bosses from each and told them to grow the fuck up or Genk gets the Mondeo job (Project Arse)

[chaseracer]

Mary Whitehouse was wholly responsible for the development and production of the Daihatsu Charade.  She will never tell you this, even when drunk.

 

This is a popular misconception.  

 

Mrs Whitehouse considered the game of 'charades' to be "utter filth" and, "even more than 'The Romans in Britain'", largely responsible for the collapse in moral standards which defined cultural debate in the late 20th century.  In fact, it was none other than Audrey Hepburn who was retained as an interior design consultant on the original Charade, the car being so named as an homage to the 1963 movie in which she starred with Cary Grant.

 

However, the multi-national design house founded by Mary Whitehouse and Dame Edna Everage rose to prominence as their media profiles faded, and had a considerable influence on the appearance of certain later GM-era Saabs.

 

 

[castros_bro]

As an aficionado of the 1980s Japanese Camper Van  Pavarotti’s favourite was the Nessun Dorma.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Tagora's are shite

RED CARD- that is in fact a true fact and is invalid in this thread

 

play nicely!

[Parky]

Alec Issigonis frequently pushed for more luxury and less interior space in his cars. He also loved double wishbone front suspension, and rear wheel drive.

 

Every car attributed to him was designed by accountants and only affiliated to Issigonis to annoy him

[fred]

The Nissan Juke was designed by a bloke with Advanced Parkinson's disease looking at two frogs shagging

[fred]

Joey Deakin designed the Morris Ital

[rml2345]

The Citroën AX was actually designed as part of a range of super advanced aerodynamic biscuit tins. However, the prototypes were built in centimetres rather than millimetres and the body tooling had already been started before anyone realised the mistake so it was hastily re-engineered as a car instead.

[cms206]

Whilst it is known that Princess Anne sold 350 Reliant Scimitars a week, it's a little known fact that Reliant actually hold the patent on Princess Annes and are the universe's only authorised Princess Anne distributer.

[fordperv]

If you spend long enough wet sanding a Princess you get an erection.

[LC Torana]

You're all dancing around the truth, but here's the real connection.

 

The Austin Princess was named after Princess Anne.

[Taff]

Challenger tanks have Hydrogas suspension

[inconsistant]

A Dukes of Hazzard fact, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Both '68 and '69 Dodge Chargers as used for the General Lee didn't have hazard warning lights as standard. Hazzard County was named by the producers of the show to highlight this omission, which Dodge rectified for the 1970 model to avoid potentially bad publicity.

[mercrocker]

The Rover P6 was optionally available with boot mounted spare. This arose from Maurice Wilks' Jeep that he used on his hill farm in Anglesey. He thought the external spare was the best feature of the Jeep and indeed made sure the Land Rover was similarly equipped.

[inconsistant]

A gentleman by the name of Mark invented the numbering system for successive model updates.

[anonymous user]

Jaguar did actually make a Mk V1, but it was based on Ford running gear and so nobody bought one.