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Automotive bull5hit facts thread


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Hydrogen  powered cars require a large amount of ballast and/or ground force spoilers , to counteract the lifting effect of said hydrogen which would lead to unpredictable and dangerous handling.

In addition , in hot climes, tethering is recommended and is a legal requirement in the Southern US states, if you park within a mile of an international airport.

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The original Volvic was a Swedish built prototype version of a medium sized Vauxhall from the late 1960s built under license. When the car failed the infamous moose test the rights to the name were sold to Danone as their new mineral water brand.

Volvo still recommend using said product in a 50/50 mix with antifreeze.

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The original Vauxhall Astra was intended to be the next car to go to The Moon in 1980, but after months of development they discovered that taller astronauts couldn't fit in the car wearing space-helmets, so they cancelled the whole 'going to the moon again' thing.

Also, some early models were made with a bootlid rather than a hatch, which was unsuitable for 3 or 4 astronauts touring the moon with their suitcases and technical equipment and notebooks.

Oh bugger.

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4 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

The original Vauxhall Astra was intended to be the next car to go to The Moon in 1980, but after months of development they discovered that taller astronauts couldn't fit in the car wearing space-helmets, so they cancelled the whole 'going to the moon again' thing. Also, some early models were made with a bootlid, rather than a hatch, which was unsuitable for touring the moon.

But the mk2 Astra GTE was actually a scale model built by NASA for early wind tunnel testing of the space shuttle.  How GM managed to get hold of the design is unknown, but it is thought that a rocket designer, decided to further his career in the much more complicated car industry and took some blue prints along to his interview.  

They looked far too advanced for GM so they sent him to Europe where all the clever people ended up.  The rocker engineer, later killed himself in a bedsit in Luton after realising that he wasn't actually that bright, when his bosses at Vauxhall de-moted him to work on the rascal design team, doing rear view mirrors in the van.  

By that time Vauxhall had incorporated the blueprints into the mk2 Astra. 

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Fun Fact:

The mid-nineties Suzuki Baleno saloon, was so named by the design team as the team head was an enormous fan of both avant garde music producer, Brian Eno and genre-hopping musician and all-round oddball, David Bowie.

The Suzuki BowiEno was due to hit showrooms in the summer of 1995, alas it was discovered that one ancient Japanese dialet, Bowieno roughly translated as 'sounds like an earthquake in a maracas factory' and at the last minute the name had to be changed.  The combined Bowie/Eno fan was consulted and after suggesting; Suzuki EnoMajorTom, AladdinSaneEno, JeanGenieEno and the very lengthy FormerlyRoxyMusicAndZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars which were all rightfully binned.  He offered naming it after the lesser-known 1981 EP of David's, Baal.  The Baaleno it was then.  Unfortunately, the holes had been drilled in all the bootlids for the badges and Baaleno was too many letters (See Morris Marina and the '.' fiasco).  Baalen was offered, but it was too close to 'bellend', so one of the superfluous 'a's was removed instead. 

Ironically, the first track on the EP, 'Baal's Hymn' is also the name given to the Suzuki's drivetrain habit of noisy tappets combined with a dry clutch release bearing at tickover.

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An economy German supermarket had 1:43 miniatures of American muscle and sports cars in the ‘crazy shit’ aisle including a rather blush coloured Stingray.

This became the inspiration for the well known song by The Artist formerly known as Prince, and the demo version was originally ‘Lidl Red Corvette’

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Dacia has announced that they will introduce a high performance version of it's 'Jogger' MPV/Estate car model. It will be called the 'Runner' .

There are also plans for a 'super economical' version that will achieve 85 miles per gallon when running on just one cylinder. That will be called the 'Marathon Runner' .

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In 1961 Elvis Presley visited AEC Southall as he wanted his own personal Routemaster. His fee was to name their new 2-axle 14tonner after his favourite scientist, Marie Curie. However due to his thick drawling accent, the resulting vehicle was misnamed ‘Mercury’.

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1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

Dacia has announced that they will introduce a high performance version of it's 'Jogger' MPV/Estate car model. It will be called the 'Runner' .

There are also plans for a 'super economical' version that will achieve 85 miles per gallon when running on just one cylinder. That will be called the 'Marathon Runner' .

They also are doing one with a wipe clean interior, the Dogger

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As I mentioned earlier, Madonna didn't name her song Vogue after the fashion magazine or the posh Range Rover, it was called that because her father ran the largest Rootes franchise on the East Coast of America. What I didn't mention is that one of her dad's loyal customers was an aspiring politician called Joe Biden who was so impressed with the Hunter he bought that he named his son after the car.

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All major car manufacturers have a naming department or consultant. Traditionally these are recruited from the Michigan State University’s Vehicle Nomenclature Degree course. Most sought after are masters graduates who have done the “Don’t let them know it’s the same car “ module. Most of these go to work for VAG or Renault / Nissan. Even less able students can get gainful employment if they have done the “Just stick an e in front” module.

 BMW and Peugeot use numbers only, so employ a retired maths teacher from Swansea called “Jones the number”.

However he has suffered a breakdown recently as evidenced by BMWs now sloppy numbering system compared to his impeccably logical work beforehand. 
Peugeot have suspended him and Carol Vorderman is doing it temporarily.

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Michigan State University Vehicle Nomenclature Degree graduates charged far too much for their services. There was a well known vehicle namer who hawked his services around several manufacturers and was considerably cheaper  - Cosmo Smallpeice.

Cosmo's first commison was for a Coventry engine maker - 'Climax'. At his peak he was responsible for 'Fiesta', 'Mayfair' and 'Forum' but when 'Penthouse' and 'Color Climax' were rejected by VAG Cosmo became disillusioned and moved into the food industry (Fish Fingers and Fingers of Fudge bear his mark).

When the reg number format needed re-vamping the DVLA persuaded Cosmo to come out of retirement for one last job - his swansong, and some say his finest work, was for devising the BJ mark for Birmingham.

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The VW Beetle originally was originally front engined with the rear one as back up in case of breakdown. It was very rare that both engines would fail, so it was very reliable and founded the idea that German cars are ultra reliable. This myth perpetuated until the 90s even though the Beetle had only one engine since 1956, mainly helped by comparison with British and Italian cars of the same era.

The Japanese on the other hand, established their reputation for reliability by only importing cars so dull, they knew the people who bought them would never rev the engine above 2000 rpm or go out in a wet day.

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  • 2 weeks later...
5 hours ago, rml2345 said:

Ironically, one of the proposed names for the new Fiat Uno was the Craiiiiig David.

Actually it was originally named the ONO which John Lennon suggested to Fiat shortly before he was killed. Unfortunately in Italian it translates as “talentless Japanese gold digger “ ( as it does in English) , so  Fiat amended it.

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