Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[lesapandre]

On 07/01/2025 at 15:38, MiniMinorMk3 said:

 

There was also going to be an MPV version with three rows of seats called the 7-Up.

Special Edition called the Snow White.

[MiniMinorMk3]

16 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Special Edition called the Snow White.

Which one would get left behind?

[New POD]

11 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Which one would get left behind?

Seven in Snow White. Oh er madam.. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

18 minutes ago, New POD said:

Seven in Snow White. Oh er madam.. 

Snow White plus seven equals eight. I think you should sit at the front of the class and stop sniggering at the back.

[New POD]

6 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Snow White plus seven equals eight. I think you should sit at the front of the class and stop sniggering at the back.

I thought the "Snow white" was a metaphor for the car in which seven dwarfs* travelled. 

*are we allowed to say dwarfs? I can use "adult none gender specific people who are in the shortest decile for height"  

 

[High Jetter]

11 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Which one would get left behind?

What about the right behind?

[ProgRocker]

The BMC 18-22 series was given that name in reference to Leviticus 18-22 from the old testament. 

[Metal Guru]

On 11/03/2025 at 12:06, ProgRocker said:

The BMC 18-22 series was given that name in reference to Leviticus 18-22 from the old testament. 

Sorry that’s incorrect. It is in fact the time that the night shift stoped work. The management had gone home by 6, so they gave it another 20 minutes or so, before they downed tools.

[quicksilver]

Italian styling legend Panini Farina, flushed with success after selling the exact same design both to BMC as the Mostin Oxbridge and to Peugeot as the Error 404, tried to repeat the same trick a few years later when British Leyland was looking to replace the Oxbridge. This time his other target was Toyota, which wanted to give its new mid-size saloon a more European look. Sadly this time round both manufacturers got wise to his cunning plan and not only rejected his proposal but delivered a further insult by giving their in-house designs names that rhymed with his, thus creating the Morris Marina and the Toyota Carina.

[Dobloseven]

9 hours ago, JeeExEll said:

Alex Issigonis's Mk1 Lotus Cortina daily- driver for 10 years in which he competed road rallies and was then stored at the Gaydon Motor Museum for several years has resurfaced on a Jonny Smith TV prog.

The suspension used a revolutionary springing medium, known as "steel" that one day all cars would use.Alex Moulton was most impressed and helped his mate to lower it and fit anti tramp bars at the back.

[Dobloseven]

Our automotive pride and joys are under siege from the nations wildlife.Squirrels stuffing air intakes with nuts,mice gnawing through wiring,foxes biting through brake hoses.And now premium German brands are having the model numbers torn from their boot lids,falling prey to de-badgers.

[DavidB]

Neneh Cherry was such a huge fan of the Nissan Cherry she named herself after it, she was also a massive fan of Wayne Cherry, who also designed the car, and was also her father. She also lost her cherry in a Nissan cherry, to the singer Eagle Eye Cherry, who may or may not be her brother, who knows.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, DavidB said:

Neneh Cherry was such a huge fan of the Nissan Cherry she named herself after it, she was also a massive fan of Wayne Cherry, who also designed the car, and was also her father. She also lost her cherry in a Nissan cherry, to the singer Eagle Eye Cherry, who may or may not be her brother, who knows.

The charity of Cherry Aid should not be overlooked too.

[Metal Guru]

Omoda will assemble their new 4x4 range  in a new factory in Paris. It will be called the Quadimoda. 
 

[Asimo]

The Quadimoda is unique in that it has a bell rather than a horn to fulfill the "audible warning of approach"  requirement.

This is a first for a hatchback although normal for a hunchback.

[dozeydustman]

Those values in Glass’s guide? Nothing to do with the recommended price of a second hand car, more what some melt on eBay wants for the chipped windscreen he has in his garage

[quicksilver]

The famous "put it in H" car from a country that no longer exists sold by Crazy Vaclav in The Simpsons was in fact the sole surviving AC Model 71 invalid carriage built under licence in Yugoslavia.

The Model 71 was being developed as an upgrade to the Model 70 when the British government ended the invalid vehicle scheme. Unable to survive on a private sale of a Model 70 once in a blue moon, AC cut a deal to sell the rights to the Model 71 to the Yugoslavian government, where it was fitted with a Cyrillic column-change gearbox and an industrial engine that would do 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene. Only a few were built before it was superseded by the far superior Zastava as Yugoslavia's national car, and most no longer exist having been destroyed in the civil war.

[quicksilver]

The AC 3000ME has its origins in Derry Preston-Cobb buying a Ford V6 that he was determined to have installed in his Model 70 in his relentless quest for more power. Rumour has it that he bought this engine from the Queen, who used her army mechanic skills to remove it from her daughter's Scimitar.

Although Preston-Cobb worked for Invacar, he decided AC would be better at fitting it as they designed the Model 70 and had experience of building sports cars. The V6 was duly installed in the Model 70, which became known as the Preston-Cobra, but tests soon revealed that the front wheel would lift off the ground under even gentle acceleration. To solve this problem it was necessary to lengthen the car and add an extra wheel, and as Preston-Cobb requested more and more changes it became less of an invalid carriage and more of a sports car.

When Yugoslavian sales of the Model 71 started to dry up, AC decided to put the Preston-Cobra into production. The name got changed because when Preston-Cobb said "you should name it after me", someone wrote this down wrongly as "you should name it ME".

[ProgRocker]

There was going to be a limited edition Ford Focus sponsored by "Durex". It was going to be similar to the ST but with a diesel engine.

[DavidB]

Chinese singer Nangneh Chery was such a huge fan of the Chery Fengyun, she named herself after it, she was also a massive fan of Wang Chery, who also designed the car, and was also her father. She also lost her cherry in a Chery Fengyun, to the Chinese singer Yīng Yǎnjīng Chery, who may or may not be her brother, who knows.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

There was going to be a limited edition Ford Focus sponsored by "Durex". It was going to be similar to the ST but with a diesel engine.

They swerved that by calling it the EcoBlue (maybe EcoAdblue would be more accurate), Subaru should have employed better translators otherwise they wouldn’t have given us the STi.

[quicksilver]

A woman named Scimitar Anne is the world's most famous owner of an Austin Princess.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Thought it was Anne Scimitar.

[New POD]

I thought it was An Car 

[quicksilver]

7 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Thought it was Anne Scimitar.

You're thinking of Anne Princess, the famous Scimitar Reliant owner.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Ah that'll be her.

[Metal Guru]

Kia had intended to bring out a new model called the Ora, available only in bright orange but were stopped by an injunction from GWM who were using it for the Funky Cat (03) model. 

[quicksilver]

The recently-demolished shopping centre in Wolverton, Milton Keynes was intended to be named after the new luxury saloon then being developed by Talbot, the idea being that sharing its name with such a prestige car would add similar prestige to the shopping experience. Sadly the T from the Tagora Centre's sign was stolen early in construction and never found, so the developers were forced to claim that its name was actually Agora Centre and that is how it became known from then on. Given the massive success* of its automotive namesake, the people of Wolverton perhaps owe the thief a debt of gratitude for forcing the name change.

[quicksilver]

The idea of making a more upmarket saloon version of the Mark 3 Escort was first suggested by an Irish intern at Ford named Seamus O'Ryan. The resulting car's name is a subtle tribute to him.

[Metal Guru]

22 hours ago, quicksilver said:

The idea of making a more upmarket saloon version of the Mark 3 Escort was first suggested by an Irish intern at Ford named Seamus O'Ryan. The resulting car's name is a subtle tribute to him.

Actually that was their second attempt at naming the car. They originally held an in-house competition allowing all employees to vote. The only stipulation was they wanted to return to a space themed name (Zodiac, Galaxy , Mercury etc ) rather than the more recent naming after posh Italian resorts or British wank mags.

However, in the tradition carried on to this day (Boaty McBoatface), the average person resorts to their inner child when presented with such a task, and 99.7% votes were inevitably cast for Uranus.