Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[Fumbler]

The Vauxhall Sintra was designed with safety for the wall as the overriding priority by GM:

 

[MikeR]

the original Fiat 500 was designed to survive the Italian wilderness and be simple to fix and service .....and to transport a whole family and livestock

the modern Fiat 500 ........ is a 4 seater

[sutty2006]

33 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

The Vauxhall Sintra was designed with safety for the wall as the overriding priority by GM:

 

And I thought the metro ncap was horrifying ?

[New POD]

The original fiat 500 was designed by issigonis. 

[richardthestag]

Issigonis was born in Sunderland

[Parky]

The Vauxhall Calibra is merely a productionised version of the Pink Panther car

 

[rml2345]

Rover was originally founded to make soup. 

[DoctorRetro]

Lada were originally a refrigerator manufacturer, so the term 'larder' is just like you say Hoover instead of Vacuum cleaner.

They were also the first manufacture to offer air-conditioning, in the form of an open refrigerator behind the dashboard. This feature was removed after 4 Russians froze to dead inside their Lada while on a trip to Siberia.

[JeeExEll]

On 8/9/2019 at 12:34 PM, rml2345 said:

Rover was originally founded to make soup. 

That's actually true. And in the mid 70s that's what they used for paint.

Hence colours such as Pea Green, Mushroom, Tomato, Turmeric, Avocado, Saffron, Sage, Chicken, Cock-a-leekie, and Cucumber.

At the time buyers thought the names were just descriptive of the colour. But they soon found out the terrible truth. The first signs of trouble were dogs and young children licking the bodywork.

An early SD1 in 'Oxtail and Onion'. The onions tended to run down the doors and stick at the bottom.

Rover-branded 'touch up' tins were readily available in Co-ops up and down the country (usually in the same aisle as the tinned veg, and sometimes on a '2 for 1' offer on Wednesdays).

[dozeydustman]

By accident in 1967 someone at Citroen accidentally filled a DS suspension system with green gloss paint. LHM is actually made by Dulux and it's official colour is Lime zest. Incidentally painting your garage door with Citroen branded fluid is actually cheaper than buying a pot of Dulux from a hardware/DIY store

[chaseracer]

17 hours ago, richardthestag said:

Issigonis was born in Sunderland

His real name is actually William Alick Mill.  The famous Billy Mill Roundabout on the A1058 Coast Road was named after him.

Since 2016, this well-known landmark of the north-east England road network is known as the 'Billy Mill Light-controlled Four-way Junction'.

[chaseracer]

48 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

That's actually true. And in the mid 70s that's what they used for paint.

Yes, indeed.  It wasn't 'orange peel' finish, it was minestrone.

[chaseracer]

And Mexico Brown was originally called Montezuma's Revenge.

[New POD]

17 hours ago, richardthestag said:

Issigonis was born in Sunderland

But trained in Brighton

[chaseracer]

On 8/7/2019 at 12:46 PM, pauldoubleyou said:

People with beards have something to hide

Their chin(s)...?

[Parky]

The Renault Clio Baccara was equipped with a suit carrier below the rear parcel shelf.  It was marketed as such in the UK and Germany but in France it was known as “Mistress Underwear compartment”, Mexico was “Talcum Powder containment” and in Japan it was marketed as a handy “Tuna fish bag”

JDM Clio Baccaras are rare but best avoided should you find one.  

[Parky]

Kia were unsure of what to call their new small car.  Luckily one of their design team was a Big fan of British cuisine and tiny Japanese Cars so it only took a look at the detritus on his desk to realise that the pickled onion and the Daihatsu Tanto gave him all the inspiration he needed.  

And lo it came to pass that the car was called the Kia Oniohatsu.  But only in the Pitcairn Islands.  

 

[Sausage5000]

On the subject of saxamophones, the original Citroen Saxo began life as a saxophone by instrument maker Yamaha. The french car company took the tooling and developed the fruity brass instrument into the car we know and love* today. 100% true.

 

Reliant cars were meant to be metal. Factory workers took the fibre glass concepts and assumed they should be made that way. Nobody in management noticed this cock up until 2005. Upon realising the error, CEO Dave Reliant made the company bankrupt.

The twist of this story? All reliant concept cars were made from pressed steel. How did Reliant workers make this mistake? Was this a simple misunderstanding? Or was it something beyond our understanding ... something of a supernatural nature?

Some stories are ... stranger than fiction. Goodnight, and don’t have nightmares.

[brownnova]

The Nissan QX was considered so dull that it was trialed by the NHS as an alternative to Ritalin for the treatment of ADHD. Sadly trials were too successful, curing 100% of sufferers in 1996. The NHS couldn’t fund the cost, and the increase in the number of ADHD cases in the UK has a direct correlation with the withdrawal of executive Nissans from their UK range. 

[Sausage5000]

Trials with patients suffering from severe depression led to hospital management introducing a scheme called ‘Spend a day with someone trying to cure an overheating K-series’.

It was a success, and cured 100% of cases who realised that their lives “weren’t that bad after all.”

[Parky]

The Japanese market TV campaign for the 1992 Corolla featured Sean Connery telling a Japanese business man to fuck off.

[Fumbler]

The K11 Micra is a reverse-engineered car-shaped jelly mould.

[New POD]

Have we had this bull Shit yet ?

Issigonis designed ......cars

 

Did he fuck. No his staff designed them whilst he went off on his bike every afternoon, and popped in to see each wife of all his draftsmen,  a different one each day, for a slow after noon with his pants off. 

He thus fathered 154 brummie kids from 1955 to 1970 most of whom worked on the design team for the Bini in the 1990s 

So untalented man gives DNA to untalented men and woman. And thus life goes on.

[Parky]

Formula One drivers have often been used in advertising.  indeed some have even been used in the engineering of cars, Honda for example made a big fuss about Ayrton Senna fine tuning the NSX back in the 1980’s.  

This is a trend that goes back several years.  Jim Clark and the Lotus Cortina is one such example, but there are several others.  Did you know for example that Graham Hill was responsible for the load area of the Leyland Sherpa, John Surtees advised on the indicator stalks for the Austin 1100 and Jackie Stewart turned the Marina into the finest handling car of its day?  Or at least he would have done if Derek in the office at Cowley had phoned THE Jackie Stewart and not just the first J.Stewart he found in the phone book.  

That particular J Stewart was a Jeremiah Stewart, an 86 year old ex merchant seaman who couldn’t actually drive.  He did make one useful contribution to the project though - the name.  Originally the team were going to stick with a UK place name (Westminster, Oxford, etc)  by launching the Morris Prestatyn but the team preferred Jeremiah’s Marina idea.  

Good job too - in Holland a Prestatyn is a particularly nasty sexual practice involving two hedgehogs and a car battery....

[brownnova]

Austin planned the same trick with names when it came to the Allegro. It was to be known as the Austin Rhyl... but it was decided that was far to optimistic for Austin’s new family car... 

[chaseracer]

What indicators? ?

[Parky]

In Hindu countries you are less likely to be involved in an accident if you have a Ganesh figurine on your dashboard.  The second safest item to have was, unbelievably, a VHS copy of “Breakdance 2 - Electric Boogaloo” 

[Parky]

PSA’s main road tester in the early 1990’s was Francois “petit” Chausette, a man with incredibly tiny feet.  This explains the pedal spacing in all small Citroen’s and Peugeot’s of the time.

The metal removed from Lotus chassis to reduce weight was recycled to make lightweight Soup tins for Weightwatchers

[martc]

19 hours ago, Parky said:

PSA’s main road tester in the early 1990’s was Francois “petit” Chausette, a man with incredibly tiny feet.  This explains the pedal spacing in all small Citroen’s and Peugeot’s of the time.

FIAT used to use a monkey, affectionately nicknamed  ' Gerald, il gorilla armato insolitamente lungo'.

[Maurice Marina]

You don’t have to be gay to ride a Harley