Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[Parky]

Lawrence Olivier used to be an MOT tester and delivered the chilling “is it safe?” Line from Marathon Man in the same style he used when assessing Marina trunnions at his garage in Macclesfield.

[Parky]

17 hours ago, anonymous user said:

Unfortunately that one is true, therefore disallowed in this thread. And you missed the bit about Issigonis' lit cigarette falling on the design drawings for the Maxi's real doors, meaning they had to quickly make the 1800's doors fit.

The Honda bit is true, the BL bit maybe not so much

[Talbot]

On 2/1/2020 at 5:12 PM, PiperCub said:

What was the favourite old one with the Citroen SM?

Something along the lines of if you put the A/C on with a combination of other things &/or circumstances then the engine blew up?

Only just noticed this.  Disallowed for the thread due to accuracy.  If you turned on everything, the loading on the snakes-pit of auxilliary belts was too much and you could snap a camshaft. (all the aux stuff is driven off a single camshaft). 

[vulgalour]

What really killed off the cross-channel hovercraft is that it actually was full of eels.

[Parky]

The Citroen 2cv’s suspension was developed by Belgian race driver Johnny Claes and held the lap record of the Nurburgring for 14 years.  

[Parky]

Phil Collins was such a massive fan of the Rover 800, he grew a beard in order to look more like Graham Day.  In response Rover’s US ad campaign was fronted by Collins and in order to highlight the use of both Rover and Honda engines featured the strapline “Two hearts living in just one car”

Collins eventually abandoned the Rover project when he realised he was in too deep

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

Vulgalour bought an Lanchester as it was the only vehicle with enough headroom to allow him to go out for a drive in his new Willy Wonka top hat!

[vulgalour]

Hey, this thread is only for facts* so that one's disallowed!

[Parky]

Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of fluid filled suspension

Some surprise, will it rise, oh can you feel all of the drivers tension....

[martc]

Lanchester cars were made halfway between Lancaster and Chester.

[Parky]

Levi Roots is related to the founder of the Hillman Car company

[dozeydustman]

Just now, Parky said:

Levi Roots is related to the founder of the Hillman Car company

Not the supercharger company?

[Parky]

He gets around!

[vulgalour]

He was also the inventor of the Jeans Bug.

[Noel Tidybeard]

9 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Hey, this thread is only for facts* so that one's disallowed!

 

10 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

Vulgalour didn't buy an Lanchester just because it was the only vehicle with enough headroom to allow him to go out for a drive in his new Willy Wonka top hat!

FIFY lol

[Parky]

Following the successful launch of the Ibiza, Seat followed that with a two seat concept convertible called the Magaluf.  Sadly it was withdrawn from sale when a design flaw meant the stereo would only play ambient house and owners developed STD’s.

 

[ProgRocker]

John DeLoean tried to keep his car company solvent in the early 1980s with a side business selling talcum powder. 

[St.Jude]

The Hyundai Kona isn't called the Hyundai Kona in Portugal, as Kona is Portugese for C*nt.

Hyundai knew this, because the designer was Portugese and called it the Kona because only C*nts would drive it. 

[New POD]

23 hours ago, martc said:

Lanchester cars were made halfway between Lancaster and Chester.

Indeed.  In fact: Lanchester College of Art and Technology, became Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic, which became Coventry Polytechnic, which became Coventry University.  

Coventry is actually an anagram of  Chorley, Oldham, Vue cinemas, Eccles,  New Brighton, Tarlton, Runcorn and Yarrow Valley and the university campus is actually a collection of rooms above off licences, sheds on allotments, and when they have need of a large lecture hall, they use screen 12 at Southport. 

The Halls of Residence are actually Pontins at Ainsdale and the disused nuclear waste disposal area near Heysham. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[anonymous user]

22 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

John DeLoean tried to keep his car company solvent in the early 1980s with a side business selling talcum powder. 

Whereas if he'd sold solvent that people could inhale he may have got away with it.

[phil_lihp]

For a short time in the early 2000s, due to an inspired partnership between the two companies, you could walk into a Sainsburys in some parts of the UK and buy an MG Rover car off the shelf with your groceries.  Although initially popular, the scheme was ended after a few months due to an administrative error which meant that for a short period in February 2002 every pack of Ferrero Rocher came with a free MG ZR, a mistake which cost MG Rover millions and eventually led to bankruptcy.  Due to the short-lived promotion, cars sold under the Sainsburys brand were never a common sight.  To this day a Rover 75 in top-of-the-range "Taste the Difference" spec is a rare and desirable find, with only 3 currently known to exist in the UK.  

[motorpunk]

When Ulrich Bez was CEO of Aston Martin, he was so desperate to fit in as an Englishman that he played in goal for Newport Pagnall FC for two seasons, conceding only 12 goals in total and helping the team to the Unibond Vanarama League 6 (South) playoffs, where they lost to a late penalty scored by Jaguar CEO Ralf Speth, who plays striker for Leamington Town Rangers and insists on being called Jayden Smith.

These are true facts and I will defend them in any international court of law. 

[dozeydustman]

The Daihatsu Charade was named in honour of popular 80s daytime show ‘Give us a clue’, and the first three imported to the UK were given to Lionel Blair, Una Stubbs and Michael Aspel.

[martc]

13 hours ago, phil_lihp said:

 for a short period in February 2002 every pack of Ferrero Rocher came with a free MG ZR, a mistake which cost MG Rover millions

It is true that BMC/BL/Austin Rover et al are well known for their costly mistakes. The above is a repeat of the costly Austin Ambassador/Ferrero Rocher tie in of 1982 when 27 Ambassdors were wrapped in gold foil and piled on top of each other in a teetering pyramid. Several bit actors were paid to be impressed by BL spoiling them.

10 Ambassadors were crushed beyond repair, the rest were unwrapped, the dents knocked out and sold to an unsuspecting public. They later became the topic of a That's Life Special following a class action led by Nigel Farage.

Only one Ambassador from this stunt has survived, the top one, pieces of hazelnut can still be found under the seats, and the front wings are made from biscuit. There is still some gold foil ground into the vinyl roof.

Nigel Farage's freshly unwrapped Ambassador just after delivery. This one was on the second row.

 

 

 

[ProgRocker]

If you type in the number sequence '80087355' into the immobiliser keypad of 1996 Citroen Xantia diesels, French owned nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll are primed for firing.

[New POD]

1 hour ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

The Invacar was intended at one point to get the Trabant engine, in a move that would have seen a more interesting GTi variant,  they even did ponder using the alloy wheels from the Dolly Sprint too. 

I think the tabbant was intended to have the invacar engine, but the complexity was beyond East German weapons designers, who had defected to automotive design. 

In fact invacar was going to  have a Honda 1300 motorbike engine (The six cylinder one) but the accountants at The department for health decided that servicing them would need 5 too many spark plugs, so they fitted it with a 2 stroke diesel, made by a toy company in Hong Kong 

[dozeydustman]

Nicole of Papa & Nicole Renault Clio fame was played by Estelle Skornik. Where’s the automotive question you may ask?

Estelle Skornik was named after her Aunt Lil’s Skoda.

[dozeydustman]

The Ford Granada was named solely to appeal to ITV viewers in Manchester

[dozeydustman]

The Citroen Visa got its name after the designer needed a stamp on his passport to bring his design drawings to the board of Group PSA

[ProgRocker]

5 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

The Citroen Visa got its name after the designer needed a stamp on his passport to bring his design drawings to the board of Group PSA

In the 1990s 'Jalopy' magazine the authors poked a bit of fun at Citroen for "naming the car after a credit card" 

😀