Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[Tamworthbay]

The scimitar driven by princess Ann wasn't made by Reliant but was in fact a light tank on loan from the British army. She would get pissed, drive full speed round Sandringham and crush peasants and servants who annoyed her. The shots of her in the reliant were airbrushed on publicity shots done after the damning Guardian headline 'now try walking on my fucking petunias you pleb' from a secret tape found in the pocket of the late (and flat) butler of Windsor castle.

[anonymous user]

Stephen Fry was going to be asked to learn the knowledge before he would be allowed to buy a black cab, however he already knew it, but he still won't go south of the river after 9pm

[Taff]

The RAF had a detachment at Brize Norton whose sole task was to fly the Royal family's car around for them. Princess Anne was known to get very irate if anyone moved the drivers seat of her Scimitar

[fred]

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.

 

To buy a Reliant Scimitar back when they were new, Princess Anne had to ride you forcefully for quite a few miles. To make sure you was manly enough to own such a beast My dad bought a new one once a month ...

[Sloth in a bowl]

SAAB never intended to make motor cars, it was set up as a front for the secret production and distribution of booze for Scandinavia's biggest black market moonshine producers.

 

It was kept going once they realised that the loss making firm also gave them a very easy way to launder their ill gotten games as well as a chance to look cool while wearing the gang's trademark uniform of black polo neck jumper and thin rimmed glasses.

 

Many of the unique features in SAAB's cars were the cause of the distillation fumes getting sucked into the R&D air conditioning systems, a design fault in the factory that wasn't rectified until 2010.

[inconsistant]

You can only jump start a diesel car with another diesel.

[PiperCub]

If you type 'Google' into Google - it breaks the entire internet.

 

 

Sorry, not car related but one of my favourites in recent times!

[fred]

There are not tight bends in America by law, as all their cars would fall over and catch fire in a Hollywood fashion

[Noel Tidybeard]

There are not tight bends in America by law, as all their cars would fall over and catch fire in a Hollywood fashion

YELLOW CARD that sounds suspiciously like a real phact

 

tread carefully young man!

[Ghosty]

Remould tyres are made from reconstituted fungi.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Tofu was discovered as a delicious* foodstuff in the 1980's by a vegetarian Walls sausage delivery driver. Whilst delivering in the Yorkshire Dales a sudden blizzard stranded him for 3 days . Fearing he may die of starvation and being unable to eat any of the tasty meat snacks in his van,he discovered that the insulation/ soundproofing beneath the rubber flooring in his Transit cab had just the right nutrients to ensure his survival.

To this day both the flooring and foodstuff are manufactured in the same factory.

A little known fact is that sometimes gangs of gypsies will steal a small section of the tenderest floor ( just below the pedals) to sell to fancy vegan restaurants in that London, pound for pound it is more valuable than truffles or copper.

[inconsistant]

Speedometers are only accurate on the flat.

[Sloth in a bowl]

As part of the development of Ford's Ecoboost engine, they spent £350 million on research into the practical applications of Escher physics.

 

The engine itself does not use this new branch of science. It was done to develop an official mpg test route that is downhill all the way.

[LC Torana]

In the early stages of the K-series development at Austin, Roland Bertodo held a brainstorming session, using one of those scrolling electronic whiteboards.

 

On one page, all the good points of the Triumph & SD1 sixes, the E-series, the O-series etc were listed.

 

On the other page were the bad points of these engines also listed.

 

It was a great session, and much was learned and recorded.

 

Unfortunately, the junior clerk pressed "print" on the wrong page...

[Tamworthbay]

VW blue motion engines cut emissions by forcing the engine to hold its breath for very periods of time while moving, hence blue motion.

[brownnova]

Rear engined Skodas never break down when in reverse.

[John F]

The RAF had a detachment at Brize Norton whose sole task was to fly the Royal family's car around for them. Princess Anne was known to get very irate if anyone moved the drivers seat of her Scimitar

 

 

?????

 

 

 

[castros_bro]

Whilst doing his apprenticeship in bricklaying and associated trades Christopher Wren also made designs for the internal combustion engine particularly modifications for the Velocette LE he rode.  One such was double OHC drive by shafts for the opposed four stroke twin, his apprentice master for “conservatory erection†was Mr (later Dr.) Ferdinand Porch and they used to discuss his engine designs over a pot of tea at Lyons Tea Rooms Sevenoaks during their lunch breaks. In subsequent years Dr. (earlier Mr.) Porch took over Brightlingsea Motor Works and modified  opposed twin engines to Wren's design for racing, eventually he moved to Kingdom of  Freistaat Bayern and set up Wrensport as his racing arm of BMW.

[autofive]

this one was spouted by a bloke viewing a scimitar GTE i had for sale

 

"you know that Reliant wanted to use the RV8, and designed the se5 around the RV8, but Triumph wanted it for the Stag so Rover agreed to supply Triumph instead"

I replied with "oh right"

 

and while on the subject of princess anne; I heard a rumour that the royal fixers searched the globe for an eligable bacholar named Lucas, but in the end settled on mark phillips, the inventor of the crossply screwhead.

[Parky]

2cv's were designed with long travel suspension specifically to make the farmers wife's breasts jiggle pleasantly over rutted fields.

[Noel Tidybeard]

2cv's were designed with long travel suspension specifically to make the farmers wife's breasts jiggle pleasantly over rutted fields.

i'm tempted to show you a yellow card cos this does sound phachooal and you never know with them frenchies

[Parky]

I often wondered if the egg thing was just a ruse......

[Jerzy Woking]

You can buy three types of power bands for the most popular of two stroke motor bikes, the Yamaha LC350

 

Green - slightly less power but better torque and better fuel consumption

Blue - standard power

Red - 40% power hike, wheelies off the throttle in third, will out accelerate a GSX-R 1000CC to 100mph

[Parky]

Hillman made a Rodney Bewes special edition Avenger in 1974. Based on the 1300DL it came with a five speed box, tartan mats and featured a special brass plaque on the dash commemorating the 27th episode of "Whatever happened to the Likely lads?"

 

You know, the one where Thelma got off her tits on MDMA and Bob had to bail her out

[Slappy]

With the onsetting thaw in relations between Iran and the rest of the world, the Paykan/Peugeot 405 factory is being tooled up to increase capacity and open up export markets.

 

An Austrian gentleman based in the north west of England is rumoured to become the primary European Importer....

[HH-R]

All Vauxhalls are great.

[brownnova]

Children's TV program "Come Outside" featured Auntie Mabel flying round in a polka dot plane.

 

To make series 2 more realistic they decided to give Auntie Mabel a car instead, and painted up a polka dot Nissan QX. But then they shelved those plans when they realised it was more realistic that a middle aged woman would fly a plane to places like the sewage factory or Wellington boot factory than that anyone would actually buy a brand new Nissan QX...

[Parky]

John Cleese was earmarked for promoting the ADO16 in 1973, but cheapskate BL tried to cut the amount they were going to pay him when he left Monty Python so they got Milligan instead. Spike wanted to promote the Mini rather than the ADO so BL came to such an arrangement.

 

Still smarting over his treatment by Filmer Paradise at BL, Cleese swore he would do anything to ruin the reputation of the ADO16, hence the car beating scene in Fawlty Towers and the gradual destruction of another one in Clockwise.

[inconsistant]

Percy Shaw got the idea for 'cats eyes' when in 1933 he chanced upon his kitten trying to excrete a recently swallowed marble.

[LC Torana]

Ford UK used wax rather than clay for their styling proposals.

 

In the case of the Sierra and the Ka, the wax melted between approval and production.