Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[CaptainBoom]

In the late nineties, Bentley was looking to replace the ageing Mulsanne, the new vehicle was due to be named in a competition held by Bentley staff.  An angry vegan, who worked on the interior design team, (who left Bentley's employment under a cloud regarding a disagreement about company owners Vickers, serving fish and chips in the Crewe works canteen on a Friday) fiddled the competition to win it with their entry, in an unbridled attack on how many cowskins were used in the interior of the new Bentley.  The competition went by unnoticed and the name badges were designed and produced without comment.  It was only when the fitters in Crewe started fitting 'Carnage' badges to bootlids that production was stopped.  The budget had been squeezed dry in buying in the expensive BMW powerplants and getting them breathed on by Cosworth, so it was impractical to rename the vehicles and reprint the brochures. 

In the end a whip-round was run in the office and a consultant was paid £11.50, a half-eaten pack of Liquorice Allsorts and a return bus fare to Sandbach, to rename the vehicle 'Arnage' by the simple expedient of removing the C's from the badges and blacking them out of the brochures with a marker pen. 

The production line chaps kept a pile of C's lying around, rumour has it they were kept in case Elton John bought a fleet of Continentals, the C's could be rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise and used the replace the 'o'...

You'd think that Bentley management would have learned it's lesson after this costly error, but another angry contractor savagely buggered up the name of the most recent luxury vehicle.  Visiting Volkswagen bosses were furious to find that the latest saloon had been called the Bentley Flying Sperm. 

[Metal Guru]

When David Brown bought Aston Martin, he was originally going to include his wife Vera in the car names and have the series badged DV .

However being a forward looking guy, he thought the DV8 would attract the wrong class of customer and so decided to go with DB.

As it turns out, he needn’t have worried.

[quicksilver]

The Macpherson Strut is the name given to the distinctive style in which supermodel Elle Macpherson's famous long legs cause her to walk. This style of walking is said to be very effective at absorbing impacts.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The famous Bond villain Elon Musk hates middle class professional Americans and Europeans so much that he hatched a very long term plan to eradicate them .

He made cars so ugly and so ridiculous that the unbearably smug men ( rarely does a woman fall for the Tesla hype)  become completely emasculated by their stupid appliances and also totally unattractive to females, meaning they will no longer reproduce.  This process initially means they all drive like bellends demonstrating there incredible acceleration, but once that novelty wears off the lack of any spark is obvious in their dead eyes.

Initially only rich old people can afford these things but as they filter down to the horrible little twats with man buns, currently whizzing about on scooters( itself already contributing to the female repelling) his mission will be complete.

 

To assist him in this process he has secretly recruited stylists from the Pontiac Aztec, Fiat Multipla and Ssangyong Rodius  to create the next in a worthy line of stunningly awkward vehicles.

[Dobloseven]

The musical "Hamilton" was originally written as a biopic of racing driver Lewis Hamilton. However his connection with Mercedes and their use of slavery during WW2, made it unsuitable for the all important American audiences. Plus he's British and the Americans don’t like F1 much anyway. So they rewrote it about another bloke called Hamilton altogether. 

[JeeExEll]

10 hours ago, quicksilver said:

The Macpherson Strut is the name given to the distinctive style in which supermodel Elle Macpherson's famous long legs cause her to walk. This style of walking is said to be very effective at absorbing impacts.

She has adjustable top mounts on her hips which can give a little bit more negative camber for her legs so she can walk round corners a bit faster.

Her shoes do tend to wear out quicker though

[NorfolkNWeigh]

1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

She has adjustable top mounts on her hips which can give a little bit more negative camber for her legs so she can walk round corners a bit faster.

Her shoes do tend to wear out quicker though

I wouldn’t mind adjusting her top mounts, fnarr fnarr etc

[rml2345]

4 hours ago, JeeExEll said:

She has adjustable top mounts on her hips which can give a little bit more negative camber for her legs so she can walk round corners a bit faster.

Her shoes do tend to wear out quicker though

Naomi Campbell had coilovers until she crashed herself into a tree trying to do burnouts in a pair of Nike trainers. 

[dozeydustman]

Citroën is French for ‘uncomplicated’

[dozeydustman]

On 24/04/2022 at 15:12, Dobloseven said:

The musical "Hamilton" was originally written as a biopic of racing driver Lewis Hamilton. However his connection with Mercedes and their use of slavery during WW2, made it unsuitable for the all important American audiences. Plus he's British and the Americans don’t like F1 much anyway. So they rewrote it about another bloke called Hamilton altogether. 

David ‘Diddy’ Hamilton?

[CaptainBoom]

The Jungle Book's character Shere Kahn was named after Rudyard Kipling's struggle in drilling out a sheer bolt on the steering column of his father's Benz Patent Motor car in 1894.

This history goes back further: his father had struggled to remove the bolt securing the front wheel of his penny farthing, just before his son was born.  When asked by his wife how work was going on, he responded by saying undoing the bolt was 'Ruddy hard', the rest is history.

[goosey]

Just found out today that DSG stands for

 Delicious, Sexy, Gears

now let that sink in, get out there and grab a piece of the action

[twosmoke300]

Thought it was 

Doesn’t 

Select

Gears 

[AnnoyingPentium]

The Morris Marina is called such because it was the best fuckin place for it.

[Amishtat]

As a result of mistranslation,the Skoda Fabia was nearly foisted on the public as the Labia. In spite of the last-minute correction and consequent rebadging,to this day they can usually be found in the vicinity of a cunt.

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 5/28/2022 at 9:41 AM, Amishtat said:

As a result of mistranslation,the Skoda Fabia was nearly foisted on the public as the Labia. In spite of the last-minute correction and consequent rebadging,to this day they can usually be found in the vicinity of a cunt.

Can confirm. 😂

[Metal Guru]

In the early 70s , BL were looking for a name for the 1100/1300 replacement. They wanted Ronseal like names,” does exactly what it says on the tin. “They already had Mini and Maxi but rejected Midi as it sounded like you were saying Mini but with a bad cold, especially with a Brummy accent.

As development neared the final prototype , it emerged what a shit car they’d made and in a fit of Ratneresqe honesty, called it the All Aggro.

By chance, the job of designing the badging, fell to a junior draughtsman with a perchant for opera ,who mistakenly made it into Allegro. By the his mistake was noticed, several thousand badges had been produced and BL’s finances being what they were, the decision was made to run with it.

Subsequently , BL adopted names that conjured up high living , excellence and exotic places, however mundane the reality.

[Metal Guru]

The Rolf Harris ( can we mention him?) song “Two little boys”, was originally about motor racing , the opening lines being , “ Two little boys, had two little toys , each had a wooden Porsche “. It goes on to describe them playing and eventually as adults becoming racing drivers, with the inevitable near fatal crash. Well you know how it goes.

Well Rolf was contacted to the BBC and any mention of brand names was strictly prohibited ,( remember Blue Peter’s “sticky backed plastic”, when the rest of the world just said “Fablon”?), so the lyrics were quickly re-written before he sung it on air for the first time.

Shame the BBC were so obsessed with the no advertising rule but rather more relaxed with the don’t be a paedophile rule.

[ProgRocker]

In 1986 the Sales and Marketing team at Austin Rover Group were considering  launching their cheapest ever car that would undercut the Fiat 126 and Eastern Bloc cars on price.

However, market research indicated that the proposed 850cc Mini 'Tower Hamlets' wouldn't be a sales hit. 

[warren t claim]

On 4/23/2022 at 12:32 AM, Noel Tidybeard said:

as Maxxo is about to report, Citreon XMs are possibly one of the easiest cars to fault find and work on compares to complex hectors like the Morry Soxford and Cord Fortina

As I've said earlier, if you go on Amazon to buy a Haynes manual for an XM, Amazon will tell you that people who bought that item also bought a rope and a stool.

[Metal Guru]

13 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

In 1986 the Sales and Marketing team at Austin Rover Group were considering  launching their cheapest ever car that would undercut the Fiat 126 and Eastern Bloc cars on price.

However, market research indicated that the proposed 850cc Mini 'Tower Hamlets' wouldn't be a sales hit. 

In 2003 the project was resurrected but as usual BL management got it seriously wrong introducing a rebadged Tata that undercut the quality of any western rival but at a higher cost.

Desperately seeking celebrity endorsement , they asked Sean Connery to feature in the advertising campaign. However after driving the car he turned them down, telling them what he thought of it.

However, due to the distinctive accent, the CEO thought Connery said “City Rover”, and so they at least had a name for the dreadful car.

[PhilA]

The actress Shirley Temple is named after the location her parents brand new Land Rover broke down at after leaving Solihull hospital with their newborn child.

She was nearly named Catherine Le Barnes but the GPS malfunctioned and initially sent the family in the opposite direction after having set the destination as "Hollywood"

[New POD]

49 minutes ago, PhilA said:

The actress Shirley Temple is named after the location her parents brand new Land Rover broke down at after leaving Solihull hospital with their newborn child.

She was nearly named Catherine Le Barnes but the GPS malfunctioned and initially sent the family in the opposite direction after having set the destination as "Hollywood"

The Shirley Temple is a restaurant I have eaten in. Fact.  It was 1995. 

Shirley Temple
https://maps.app.goo.gl/J8JDXDWwceDJk7d97

It is now permanently closed. 

[dozeydustman]

The ‘Suitcase’ engine was so named as the prototype was found on the baggage reclaim belt at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport by a Peugeot engineer.

[MikeR]

The original Audi badge was to have 5 rings , but when the prototype was delivered one ring was missing , some one said the 5th ring piece was on the driver's seat but it was never found ...

[Metal Guru]

16 hours ago, MikeR said:

The original Audi badge was to have 5 rings , but when the prototype was delivered one ring was missing , some one said the 5th ring piece was on the driver's seat but it was never found ...

The original Audi badge did indeed have 5 rings but was made out of Hula Hoops and the designer got peckish one day.

[stuboy]

ford's v6 duratec will get 100mpg when tested by Volkswagen engineers

[MikeR]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

ford's v6 duratec will get 100mpg when tested by Volkswagen engineers

and the emissions will pass the latest standards ...

[martc]

On 7/17/2022 at 5:46 PM, MikeR said:

The original Audi badge was to have 5 rings , but when the prototype was delivered one ring was missing , some one said the 5th ring piece was on the driver's seat but it was never found ...

You're sort of on the right track. There are in fact 9 rings in the Audi badge, but spread out. 

4 rings at the front, 4 rings at the back. The 9th ring is indeed on the drivers seat but it's the 9th ring of hell that reminds the driver that working for Wernham Hogg  trying to flog photocopier paper to disinterested purchasing clerks is not the career path they expected. In fact all Audi drivers expected to be chisel chinned muscle bound grand prix sex gods but in reality all Audi drivers are lower to middle ranking stationary salesmen.

However, all Audi drivers think they are chisel chinned muscle bound grand prix sex gods.

I think it's been mentioned before but the devil works at Audi in the naming department. Naming all Audis after paper sizes is just rubbing salt into the drivers wounded ego.

[MikeR]

the idea for the clock /cog based images on the introduction to Dr who , did not come from a clock or a car gearbox

but was actually taken from the cog system used on the Hercules sleeve valve engines

used on the Bristol Beaufighter ..

meanwhile on the set of the Crow they decided to use a car that would reduce costs and not take any gleam from the actors and it was decided to use a Yugo 45

in the chase scene , its damage in the end crash meant it got wrote off and used for tins cans , this one was not driven by Bruce Willis.....