Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[Bear]

The Vauxhall FE series was to have ended on a high note, with the VX490 equipped with a lotus-designed twin-cam head on the 2.3 slant four, fuel injection and a 5-speed dogleg gearbox. Unfortunately Opel demanded the car be cancelled as it was faster and more economical than the Vauxhall Omega Elite they planned to release in the 1990s, so the few VX490s produced had all the good stuff removed.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The Vauxhall FE series was to have ended on a high note, with the VX490 equipped with a lotus-designed twin-cam head on the 2.3 slant four, fuel injection and a 5-speed dogleg gearbox. Unfortunately Opel demanded the car be cancelled as it was faster and more economical than the Vauxhall Omega Elite they planned to release in the 1990s, so the few VX490s produced had all the good stuff removed.

That is so close to being a yellow card.

The VX facelift of the 4/90 was meant to have injection and 150 bhp, but Lucas couldn't get the costs down enough so it reverted at the last minute to carbs, the 500 or so VX 490's did have a Getrag dogleg box.

It was such an unimportant model Vauxhall didn't bother to get the power output certified, so on paper it was the only VX not to get a 10 bhp power increase over the Victors, as no road tests were carried out it might have been faster than The Royale. There must have been HS Chevette engines lying around too......

[Bear]

The aim is to make bullshit that's believable, right?

 

If I won the lottery, I'd make an offer that couldn't be refused on USA333S, then fit a modern fuel injection system to it. And probably find a VX2300 estate, put a Lotus or Chevette HS engine in (Lotus turbo always interested me) and see if a replica 2300GLS grille and lighting arrangement could be built up.

 

Oddly enough, I just read about a car which IS very interesting for putting together an automotive what could have been.

 

The DS was originally designed to have a flat-6 engine. Car customizer Gene Winfield used a DS chassis with a Chevrolet Corvair engine as the basis for the Reactor custom car.

 

Now that would be very interesting, Particularly with the turbo Corvair variant existing.

[chaseracer]

The Leyland P76 tooling was sold to Chrysler and formed the basis of the Dodge Magnum, Charger and Chrysler 300/C.

 

Nearly.  The 300 was based closely on the Rover P5.

[quicksilver]

As part of the experimentation with alternative fuels that created the Insight, Honda also built an electric Accord. It was powered by lithium-ion batteries, which led to it being nicknamed the Accordion.

[Parky]

BMW eschewed the use of clay bucks when designing their cars in the early 1990's following Chris Bangles arrival. Instead models were made of very thin steel.

 

Upon seeing his first model of the new six series, the CEO was so disgusted with Bangles efforts, he blasted the model with a flamethrower causing the panels to distort. Bangle liked the effect and so "flame surfacing" was born. Originally it was called "Fucker torched it" styling but the marketing department earned their money that day.

[Bear]

If you reverse the direction your Otto-cycle engine is running in, it can pull exhaust fumes from the air and convert them into petrol.

[Stroller133]

Marmite is a by-product of the tyre manufacturing process

Marmite is made in Burton on Trent just a few miles away from the Pirelli factory.

[plasticvandan]

Vinyl was introduced as a seating material to discourage drivers from engaging in sexual acts.

[quicksilver]

Flushed with success at mating two Dolomite slant-fours to make the V8 used in the Stag, Triumph decided to take the modular engine concept a stage further and outdo Jaguar's V12 by joining two Stag V8s to create a W16. Still annoyed by Triumph's claim that the Rover V8 wouldn't fit in the Stag, BL management ordered that all future cars be carefully designed so the Triumph W16 wouldn't fit, and nothing more was heard of the idea until...

 

...many years later, someone at MG Rover found the drawings for the W16 in a dusty filing cabinet at Longbridge (how they got there from Canley no one seems to know) and took them as inspiration to build a W12 K-series from two KV6s to power the MG SV. Unfortunately all four head gaskets failed on the prototype KW12 on its very first bench test and the idea was abandoned there and then.

[Pillock]

Vauxhall trialled digital dashboards with 7 digits on the odometer plus tenths, but hilarious test drivers kept getting them up to 5537800.8 miles and then turning the cars upside down.

[chaseracer]

Vauxhall trialled digital dashboards with 7 digits on the odometer plus tenths, but hilarious test drivers kept getting them up to 5537800.8 miles and then turning the cars upside down.

 

The more mammarily-minded test drivers worked quicker, achieving their goal at 531800.8 miles.

[fred]

Indicators and reverse gear are optional on all German cars - as turning and retreat is not in their dictionary

[brownnova]

There is a little known by-law that says that on a single track lane you must always give way to any car which is also owned by the queen.

 

This is why drivers of modern Range Rover will never back up on single track lanes. (It's nothing to do with them being a blonde 40-something woman who couldn't reverse if it would somehow save her life... Or alternatively a man with a penis so small turning round to look over his shoulder to reverse might mean he would lose sight of it and never be able to find it again)

[Bear]

The original AstraMax held the land speed record for Tebay Services to Forton Services for 15 years, and was only beaten by a drunk footballer in a Range Rover who was desperate to get back to Cheshire after a Scotland match.

[warren t claim]

If you watch the first Star Wars film carefully you'll notice that they use two different Millennium Falcons. This is because the first one fucked up by Harrison Ford trying to run it on Costco veg oil not realising that it was made by George Lucas not George Bosch.

[AndyW201]

Dacia's importers were sued under the trades descriptions act in the early 80's for calling their Denem model 'very acceptable'. Sales nosedived when subsequent advertising was made to feature the slogan 'utterly abysmal'.

[oldcars]

MK1 Ford Ka's were treated underneath with a Robust Under Seal Treatment 

[oldcars]

Dacia's importers were sued under the trades descriptions act in the early 80's for calling their Denem model 'very acceptable'. Sales nosedived when subsequent advertising was made to feature the logan 'utterly abysmal'.

FIFY 

[dollywobbler]

The Reliant Scimitar SS1 was designed by Kenny Everett. Some criticised his bold wedge, but he claimed it was all in the best possible taste.

 

The SS1 was later restyled by Paul Daniels, with the Everett lines much improved. When asked how he did it...(you can finish that one yourselves).

[fred]

The MG Montego had a top speed of 185,000 miles an hour as tested in the Hadron Collider, but the top brass decided to put a inhibitor on the throttle pedal to please the Rozzers

[vulgalour]

Rolls Royce refer to the header tank on their radiators as 'The Top Brass'.

[Bear]

"Brass Knuckles" were invented when a cockney gangster got into an altercation following a crash, and used part of the steering linkage as a weapon.

[minolman]

It is historically acknowleged [or apparently acknowleged by some historians - or people who have read some books, possibly history related] that the Tatra car, -pre war models such as the 77a and 87 of course] accounted for more deaths of "Nazi officers" in WW2 than in actual combat. This is due to their love of the sweeping aerodynamic lines of the large cars, overestimating their driving ability. It was reported in British newspapers

 

"Therefore Nazi officers loved to drive the car fast and go on long runs across Germany. But its heavy steering ensured that if a sharp turn was taken at speed, the car would easily spin out of control and ended the lives of many officers. Historians say that the Nazi’s love of being flash, egotism and machismo drove them to their own deaths in the Tatra."

 

Only a very small number of Tatra's were fitted with trafficator - indicators of the period - before this was deleted as redundant since German Officers driving them never indicated where they were going.

[vulgalour]

Almost extinct now, and only produced in small numbers anyway, part of the Citroen Bijou's downfall was it's unique use of squashed insects in place of oil, or "Bee Joux".  Many people mistakenly think that 'Bijou' refers to the small size of this rare French motor car.

[DavidB]

The word 'K Series' when translated into Japanese says 'oh no, God Jesus, no not again, it's happened again, no please God no'

[DavidB]

The proper name of the statue hood ornament on a Rolls Royce is 'Dat Shiny Ho'.

[anonymous user]

The rotary engine from the NSU RO80 was originally tested in the Ford Corsair and was a frequently requested upgrade for Corsairs by those in the know as it is so easily interchangeable.

[Felly Magic]

The Volvo 245DL was voted the most aerodynamic car of the 1970's, due to it's slippery shape, and the velour seats in the Austin Montego were made from the same material as Bruce Forsyth's wig

[Taff]

Lewis Hamilton doesn't hold a UK driving license. He passed his test in Monaco for tax purposes.