Factoids.

[andrew e]

The Prodrive connection:

 

http://www.prodrive.com/images/gallery/ ... rkshop.jpg

 

Long dead now.

 

And a PHACT! Citroen AX and 106 dashes are interchangeable.

[Pete-M]

10. At least one V6 24V engined, RWD Mk 4 Escort was produced.

 

Twas a Mk5. In Mallard green.

 

KITT in Knight Rider had a - then unimaginably huge - 1GB of memory.

[254575]

'CPL 593H' referenced in Roxy music's 'Remake/Remodel' opening track from the debut album was the reg plate of Bryan Ferry's Mini Clubman.

 

nearly right. it was the number plate of a fine young lady he noticed at a music festival. hence the rest of the the line...

She's the sweetest queen I've ever seen (CPL593H) / See here she comes see what I mean? (CPL593H)

[scaryoldcortina]

10. At least one V6 24V engined, RWD Mk 4 Escort was produced.

 

Twas a Mk5. In Mallard green.

 

KITT in Knight Rider had a - then unimaginably huge - 1GB of memory.

 

And Johnny Mnemonic had 80gb (with a doubler to make 160gb - how very windows '98)

 

ah crap, I can remember thinking my 16k zx81 ram pack was huge. I suppose actually it was. Can you think of an expansion now that gives you 16 times your base memory to play with? And does it crash and lose everything if you move it AT ALL? I think, this eeePC is the same size (about) as the zx. It has as much memory as KITT and a hard drive bigger than johnny's head.

[warren t claim]

Can someone please answer the question as to why a certain Renner engine is referred to as a Peanut Pusher?

[barrett]

the Jensesn FF was the first series production car that you could actually walk into a showroom and buy with permanent 4WD, but there were loads of 4WD cars through history, and Ferguson themselves had been messing about with it since at least the 1950s.

[Pete-M]

Ferdinand Porsche designed the Lohner Porsche "Mixte" hybrid in 1899 with a petrol engine and electric motors in each hub, creating a frictionless drivetrain and 4wd.

 

Just while I'm rambling about Porsche, he's classed as Bohemian-German, but he was born in Maffersdorf which at the time of his birth was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later on, it was Czechoslovakia, then the Germans called it "Reichenburg" when they took control of the Sudetenland. The Czechs always called it Liberec, but if you approach it even today from Germany, you'll see signs for Reichenberg.

 

So, Porsche was a Czech from the same city my Escort is currently spread around.

[morris_ital_lover]

1. Rolls-Royce nearly named the silver shadow the silver mist, as it was a logical successor to their previous names, but had to change it after they discovered mist was the german word for dung.

 

2.Gibraltar, despite being an outpost of britishness drives on the wrong side.

 

3. Jensen produced the bodyshells for the Volvo P1800.

 

4. The Vauxhall Lotus Carlton created such as stir upon its release that questions were asked in parliament as to its suitability for the uk.

 

5. The PSNI still use Vauxhall Vectra MK1s and LDV convoys on a day to day basis despite the fact they are around 10 years old (I know its a shit factoid but itll interest someone!).

 

m0rris

[simmo]

Peugeot use the lion as their mascot because the Peugeot family who were french industrailist didn't want to be associted with motor cars and wouldn't allow the name to be used by their relative. The company was launched as The Lion but later allowed to use the name.

 

The Ford Pinto case was where the cost of recall versus the cost of compensating for dead punters lead to the use of punative damages in US courts.

[pompei]

Vagueness - some Ferraris can use Lada track rod ends (or something like that)

[pompei]

Desserts is Stressed spelled backwards.

 

Black Forest Gateau for me please.

[ChinaTom]

Peter Hankin, currently a shropshire artist whose wife is head of foreign languages at Shrewsbury school once worked for an advertising company in London and was responsible for the advertisement in the Times that had the slogan "Jensen Ferguson Formula - Britain's first four wheel car". He was fired. He has a framed copy of this in his studio.

[face]

Allegro means 'Go fat man' in French

[Station]

Poor, but helpful factoid: Seconds hand 4AGE engine alternators are rare and expensive. K-series alternators fit and work fine!

 

[simmo]

The M4 elevated section was the first heated UK road it broke the first winter it was open and has never been fixed.

 

Motorway speed limits party came in due to Aston Martin using the M1 as a test track and some maniac in a Shelbey.

[Cavcraft]

The bloke who designed the road network in Telford got lost him self not long afterwards and then had it re-designed.

 

Phillip Schofield needs a good shoeing.

 

Emma Bunton is still incredibly hot.

[Lankytim]

Phillip Schofield needs a good shoeing.

 

 

Give Schofield a good kicking? Sounds easy doesn't it? but nothing is easy, IN THE CUBE.

[mk1_4dr]

A little bit of knowledge gained from 5years listening to my ex's dad, a fantastic engineer and a Packard nut, hence....

 

The first production V12 car engine was the Packard twin six of 1916.

The first LSD offered on a production car was Packards twin-traction of '56.

The first production aircon in '39.

 

Im sure theres something about Packard and the first self-leveling suspension using torsionbars in the early 50's ....

[martc]

Mitsubishi translates into "three diamonds" in Japanese (hence the logo),

 

Honda translates into "main rice field" in Japanese,

 

Toyota translates into "bountiful rice field" in Japanese,

 

The Mitsubishi Starrion should have been called the Stallion but when the factory rang the the American importer they could not understand the accent and had the brochures printed with the wrong name.

 

Skodas arrow badge arose because the founder of the company had a Red Indian as a butler.

 

Other motor companies that started in the sewing industry include Toyota (still do) and Suzuki.

 

Hitler had a signed photo of Henry Ford on his desk. Both where great fans of each others "methods".

 

Honda, Peugeot, Suzuki and BMW still make motorbikes. BSA and DKW also made cars. Triumph and Triumph where unconnected to each other.

 

Steve Wright is not very good.

[Lankytim]

On R2's famous "Popmaster" quiz the robotic synthesised voice used in the intro is saying "fat bastard" in honour of Steve Wright, not "popmaster" as commonly thought.

[Station]

Mitsubishi translates into "three diamonds" in Japanese (hence the logo),

 

The Mitsubishi Starrion should have been called the Stallion but when the factory rang the the American importer they could not understand the accent and had the brochures printed with the wrong name.

 

Translates as 'Three Seeds'. Also based on a boat propeller as they started out as a shipbuilder.

The last one is very amusing, but I really, really doubt there's any truth in it - I'm sure there was more than one person in Japan responsible for the name. In America they were called Dodge Conquests.

[Rocket88]

Triumph Stag designers deliberatley engineered the engine cmpartment so that a Rover V8 wouldn't fit . Mk2 Stag radiators were REDUCED in capacity. Allegro's ended up with a far higher than planned scuttle height because BL insisted in using the same heater and matrix that was in the Marina.

[M'coli]

Lemmy sang "The Eight of Spades" on stage for years without anyone noticing, rather than "The Ace of Spades".

[face]

Mitsubishi translates into "three diamonds" in Japanese (hence the logo),

 

The Mitsubishi Starrion should have been called the Stallion but when the factory rang the the American importer they could not understand the accent and had the brochures printed with the wrong name.

 

Translates as 'Three Seeds'. Also based on a boat propeller as they started out as a shipbuilder.

The last one is very amusing, but I really, really doubt there's any truth in it - I'm sure there was more than one person in Japan responsible for the name. In America they were called Dodge Conquests.

 

 

That Starrion story is exactly how I understood it.

 

Mind you, that means sod all

[Station]

They had the Colt name though, which was a horse, along with a Stallion? Someone must know.

[scaryoldcortina]

Mitsubishi had Colt trademarked as far back as '67... I know this because Ford wanted the capri to be called "Colt" (small mustang...) and couldn't.

 

Starion, I have no idea. It's possible it's an elaborate pun that no one else gets (but that's probably just me)

[Tayne]

.

[richardthestag]

Triumph Stag designers deliberatley engineered the engine cmpartment so that a Rover V8 wouldn't fit .

 

Never heard that one before, maybe RV8's are smaller these days but they fit just fine.

 

I am sure that there was conciderable brand pride but I read that Rover v8 was considered for the Stag but with P5, P6 and Range Rover models all making huge demands on the RV8 production line in 1970 - output could not be increased to accomodate the forecast annual sales for the Stag.

 

Forecast annual sales for the stag = total production over 7 years

 

Had management not been such fuck heads they would have gone the Merc SL route and started out with 6 pots - triumph straight 6 looks quite at home in the Stag engine bay. they could have then sorted out the main bearing caps, and service shedule and got the v8 working properly.

[Vin]

Ford were originally going to call the Fiesta, 'Bobcat' after it's Ford Design Codename. But they couldn't due to the Bobcat diggers.

[Spiny Norman]

The Renault 21 was available in four different wheelbase lengths, possibly being the only car ever on sale in the UK to have so many variations.

There was the 4" difference depending on whether it was a saloon or an estate, and there was the few mm difference depending on whether it had the transverse 1.7 or the longitudinal 2.0 litre engines.