Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[dozeydustman]

The Audi Q series were named in tribute to Spike Milligan’s Tv show from the 70s.

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 12/8/2021 at 2:59 PM, ProgRocker said:

Fiat's "3 figure number" model names used from 1964 were based on a bet laid out by the directors on many minutes their future models would last in a northern European climate before rust holes appeared. . 

FTFY.

[DavidB]

The name DATSUN, was conceived when the head of Datsun, Akira Nissan, used the phrase repeatedly ("Oh Dat Son of mine") (in a frustrated tone) when his son (who was Carlos Ghosn) was constantly discovered doing many dodgy business activites, and then escaping in packing crates.

 

[Missy Charm]

In the old Vauxhall Vectra, simultaneously pushing in the cigarette lighter and depressing the Trafficmaster button, where fitted, sent an emergency signal to all motorway control rooms within range.  A police car would be despatched and escort the driver for the remainder of his or her journey.  

The dashboard of the Mk3 Granada LX concealed a slide out ironing board.  They also came with a Russell Hobbs steam iron that stowed in the passenger footwell.  Ghia variants did too, but also had tea and coffee making facilities in the glove compartment.  Granada Cosworths had those things too, of course, in addition to a Gideon Bible incorporated into the handbook, clothes brushes built into the grab handles and floor mounted shoe buffers for both rear seat passengers.  

[Noel Tidybeard]

19 minutes ago, Missy Charm said:

In the old Vauxhall Vectra, simultaneously pushing in the cigarette lighter and depressing the Trafficmaster button, where fitted, sent an emergency signal to all motorway control rooms within range.  A police be despatched and escort the driver for the remainder of his or her journey.  

The dashboard of the Mk3 Granada LX concealed a slide out ironing board.  They also came with a Russell Hobbs steam iron that stowed in the passenger footwell.  Ghia variants did too, but also had tea and coffee making facilities in the glove compartment.  Granada Cosworths had those things too, of course, in addition to a Gideon Bible incorporated into the handbook, clothes brushes built into the grab handles and floor mounted shoe buffers for both rear seat passengers.  

surprisingly those features were absent on the granadanada 2.5td GL my b-i-l had as we didn't find them when changed the seats for a leather set!

[vulgalour]

You can use the little travelling iron from the Fiesta in the Granada, something that's handy if your Russell Hobbs unit has got clogged up with limescale.  Being a non-steam iron, the Fiesta offering is a bit more reliable.  It plugs into the interior light, you just have to take out the festoon bulb first.  The cord is just about long enough to reach the ironing board and, failing that, you can actually use the handbook as an ironing board since the cover is made from recycled unsold asbestos rich brake shoe linings.  Ford don't like people knowing about these things, mind, and it's not widely known in the owner's clubs.

[Noel Tidybeard]

from 7th gen onwards in a Civic type-r there is a secret compartment which holds a nice Type-R branded pen

[Noel Tidybeard]

iv*co were so impressed with the bmc/bl door sharing exercise that the daily was designed to use the doors from a renner master

[Missy Charm]

36 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

surprisingly those features were absent on the granadanada 2.5td GL my b-i-l had as we didn't find them when changed the seats for a leather set!

It's because the diesels were made by Ford of Ireland in County Waterford and were differently specified.  They did, however, have 100% lead crystal windscreens.  

[Sausage5000]

Many Toyotas, Nissans and Mitsubishi’s (and pretty much every Japanese car makers) listed そのクソさび  as a feature in much of its literature. It roughly translates as ‘that fucking rust’

[vulgalour]

30 minutes ago, Missy Charm said:

It's because the diesels were made by Ford of Ireland in County Waterford and were differently specified.  They did, however, have 100% lead crystal windscreens.  

Ford not only had the lead crystal package, they also offered a Cristal package available only to customers of long standing who never left an option box unticked.  There's one Granada Cristal rumoured to survive, last spotted in 2001 in by an urbex sort in Slough.

[dozeydustman]

The Citroën Relay’s name in the rest of Europe is the Citroën Jumper due its body panels being made from cable-knit sweaters.

[AnnoyingPentium]

The Mercedes Sprinter is named as such as that was the only thing that moved as quickly as rust along the bodywork.

[dozeydustman]

37 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

The Mercedes Sprinter is named as such as that was the only thing that moved as quickly as rust along the bodywork.

I though it was because the prototype was built from a scrapped BR Class 150 DMU?

[stuboy]

when ford used the duratec 1.8/2.0 engine from mazda they felt the piston rings should be made from recycled ford escort seat foam.

[Noel Tidybeard]

9 minutes ago, stuboy said:

when ford used the duratec 1.8/2.0 engine from mazda they felt the piston rings should be made from recycled ford escort seat foam.

yellow card 🟨- that sounds suspiciously true😁

[Metal Guru]

The Vauxhall Velux was the first car with a sun roof . It had a little roller blind that could be used in strong sunlight.

It wasn’t popular as planning permission was needed for putting in extra windows in the 60s and Vauxhall confusingly replaced it with the Velox.

[Metal Guru]

The Audi Quattro was invented by Suzi after she crashed her Mustang on Devil Gate Drive.

[ProgRocker]

Designer of the Marina Roy Haynes left British Leyland in 1969 and decided to quit designing cars altogether. He had a dream of appearing in a children's television show. After finding an agent and having some talks with the honchos at Thames Television in the early 1970s, Roy's dream became reality. A year later he appeared in their new show "Rainbow" alongside Zippy, George and Bungle. 

[Metal Guru]

Bob Holness not only played sax on Baker Street, he also drove for McLaren at the 1976 British Grand Prix when James Hunt  turned up pissed.

[dozeydustman]

Austin motors weren’t named after Herbert Austin. The original Austin car was created from stannic metal compounds from the antipodes, hence Aus-Tin

[Metal Guru]

Rapido motor homes formed an owners club but take up was very low, possibly due to the name of it…. Rapidophiles.

[warch]

Nm stands for newton metres. It is a measure of torque calculated by the amount of time it takes a team of newts to move a 1000kg weight a metre in distance.

[Metal Guru]

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.

[dozeydustman]

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.

[Vince70]

Man hasn’t been able to go back to the moon because when the Rover group went bust NASA couldn’t buy anymore Moon Rovers and the Chinese now own the copyright for the vehicle.

[JeeExEll]

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.

[New POD]

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. 

[Dobloseven]

Inspired by how well Honda and Volvo, amongst others, had done with sporting "R" versions of mundane family cars, Kia decided to get in on the act. Their first attempt, the R Soul, almost became a production reality. 

[CaptainBoom]

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.