Factoids.

[Pete-M]

Rover P6 differentials were made by Qualcast.

[wuvvum]

Raleigh , the Bicycle people also made cars and trike pickups

 

Wasn't the engine in these things made by Sturmey Archer?

[Guest]

Childrens gameshow Fun House was renowned for its unique combination of a quiz, a race and a "real wacky place". The racing section was known as the Fun Kart Grand Prix, in which two opposing contestants had to race go-karts around a track whilst picking up points, stopping for a tyre change mid-way. The go-karts themselves were a joint styling effort between Bertone and Pininfarina, sharing many underpinnings with the Maserati Khamsin and costing close to £2 million to design and produce. Both of the karts still exist and currently reside in Pat Sharp's garden, though he claimed in a recent interview he would "use (his) body and (his) brain" to get them sorted out at some point. However, this could be a trickier job than he anticipates, as they are firmly entrenched in over a decades worth of stinging nettles.

[Vin]

That's a lot of stinging nettles. FACT.

 

In the UK, there are definitely twice as many socks as people. Probably.

[Guest]

"Look out, look out, there's a Wigglee about!" - children visiting seaside-based discount shops just love the enduring appeal of the Magic Wigglee, watching as it unconvincingly slides across a flat cap or comes out of a bogroll tube whilst strange music plays and a chuckling cartoon boy slides on and off the screen. However, the iconic promotional video hides a dark secret. At the end, where it tells you to take one to the checkout, you can see the Wigglee go under a Postman Pat toy van - but what you can't see is that inside the van is a Post-It note which says "LDV Pilot design prototype".

[flat4alfa]

The lady on the phone, seeing as it's a Mercedes..

Ah yes, true. I was staring at American-style hairdo lady with American-style bins for far too long.

What we want is a picture of a lass called Helga for comparision

 

 

Raleigh bought BSA Cycles off the parent company.

BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms, a joining of Brummy arms manufacturers who had supplied the Crimea.

[CreepingJesus]

The Queen has owned some cars, even an Austin or two. Fact. Did she trash a Princess in Paris? Speculation.

Baxter Basics MP of Vizshire once blew his load into his car's filler pipe. Fact.

Roger Taylor of Queen wrote a song called 'I'm In Love With My Car'. Fact. He finds Peco Cherry Bombs to be exactly the right internal diameter. Scurrilous speculation.

Lionel Ritchie loves his Datsun 240Zee. Fact. Unfortunately, his stupid progeny thought the 'Zee' stood for 'Zeebra', and had it released into the wild, in the Serengeti. It was the subject of some unwanted attention from a Rhino, and now there are hordes of 4x4 Figaros roaming around. Fact, or not?

[M'coli]

He finds Peco Cherry Bombs to be exactly the right internal diameter.

This probably should be on the "Pedant" thread, but they were Peco Red Bullits, not Cherry Bombs. (I had one on me 1 litre Metro!!! )

[CreepingJesus]

He finds Peco Cherry Bombs to be exactly the right internal diameter.

This probably should be on the "Pedant" thread, but they were Peco Red Bullits, not Cherry Bombs. (I had one on me 1 litre Metro!!! )

 

I stand corrected. Fact. Add one of those and a K+N filter to a rusty Fiat 127, and it'll be magically transformed into a high speed girl magnet. Fact, according to a mate of mine from school. Whose name might have been Keith, I think. Speculation.

[autofive]

Rover P6 differentials were made by Qualcast.

 

do they have the plastic spacer so the diff can be moved closer to the ground?

[scaryoldcortina]

Over 25% of internet users pick the name of their cat as a password

[Guest]

Over 25% of internet users pick the name of their cat as a password

 

Good job mine's dead then.

[autofive]

Over 25% of internet users pick the name of their cat as a password

 

i had a cat once (only once, never again) and it didnt have a name

[CortinaDave]

The Titanic had two near identical sister ships, The Olympic and Britannic, Britannic sank as well but Olympic stayed in service until 1935, when it was broken up in Inverkeithing.

 

Also, it is impossible to lick your own elbow.

[Tayne]

,

[CreepingJesus]

When cars are just little, their parents get them to finish off their green fuel by telling them The Hiab Man will come for them.

Somewhere in their teen years, they'll be out in the woods, drinking the strong stuff (101...), when young Victor decides to impress the French exchange student, Dauphine, with a scary story about The Hiab Man. His friends dare him to do it, and drunk-ish on Super, he chants 'Hiab Man, Hiab Man, Hiab Man' into his wing mirrors at the stroke of midnight.

There's a ghastly grind of gears, and the hiss of airbrakes, and there he is - The Hiab Man! From the pall of grey-blue smoke comes a long, rusty orange* arm, with a manky great hook swinging from it. In a lunge (four extensions, natch...), he's stuck the arm thro' Victor's back window, and lifted him up by the roof. One of Victor's trendy Poundland wheeltrims falls in amongst the oil and coolant he's spewing everywhere. The sound of smashing glass, the scream of tearing metal.

As soon as he's come, he's gone. No Victor, not at all. Just a pool of vital fluids trailing off, away from the picnic area, a battered wheeltrim, and some money tucked inside a tatty envelope which also serves as a receipt. If they could read the grease-smeared mobile number, would they ring it?

Into old age, as bits start rusting up, seizing, and falling off; one by one, they all succumb to The Hiab Man. Some go gladly, some in shame at their rat-look vestments and poxy roofracks. Then, there's only one. Old Sven, who seems worldly wise to his grandkids, as he takes Victor's wheeltrim from a dusty Halford's box.

"He was a stupid cunt, kids - it isn't worth it. Not even to explore the French exchange student's interior trim. He's part of the 14th floor in a Beijing office block now y'know...Fact!"

 

*Ok, I know it's orange - The Hiab Man's real name is Terex Atlas Palfinger, but these things are generic, right? Right! Fact.

[autofive]

The Titanic had two near identical sister ships, The Olympic and Britannic, Britannic sank as well but Olympic stayed in service until 1935, when it was broken up in Inverkeithing.

 

Also, it is impossible to lick your own elbow.

 

was it the Titanic or the Olympic that sunk?

 

there is a theory (backed up with some facts, and some theory) that it was the Olympic that sank

 

the Olympic suffered a collision before the Titanic was launched, the collision caused serious damaged to the structure of the ship, and would cost more than the ship was worth to repair.

As it not insured (i dont know why) then the shipping company (white star i think) swapped identities with Titanic (a weekend visit to Belfast, all shipyard staff sent home early on friday afternoon, Titanic in dry dock, Olympic sitting offshore, than swapped during saturday night, by monday only the cups and plates needed to be swapped over, some shipyard staff were sacked when they questioned the identity of the ship, after been asked to change the china)

Titanic was originally intended to be different to Olympic, but after the Olympic collision, the blue prints were altered in the drawing office of Harland and Wolfe to be the same as Olympic. (something to do with extra windows)

The plan was to scupper the Olympic (now the Titanic) and rescue all the passengers with a waiting white star ship, the other ship (i cant remember its name) got to the spot a full 12 hours before Titanic mayday was issued dropped anchor and waited. unfortunately, the Titanic was scuppered in the wrong place, and the rescue ship didnt reach the lifeboats and swimmers until next morning, by which time most were brown bread. Any staff that returned after the sinking where forced to sign a confidentiality document, and most never worked again, or received any compo from the shipping line.

Its a fascinating conspiracy theory - loads of info online, and an hour long film on utube thats well worth watching

[M'coli]

Also, it is impossible to lick your own elbow...

...whilst your arm or tongue is still attached to your body.

[Guest]

To increase appeal for the export market, the final series of Ever Decreasing Circles featured monster truck versions of all the main character vehicles. This change proved puzzling and unpopular with British sitcom fans, but was embraced by "monster truck mad" Mexican viewers, leading to Richard Briers starring in over 200 all-new Mexico-only episodes. These episodes are more vulgar in tone and feature dozens of slide whistle noises and impromptu hat dances.

[simmo]

It is more healthy to smoke cigarettes than to eat them

[Richard]

Also, it is impossible to lick your own elbow.

 

I'm sure this was on Brainiac or Mythbusters once and they discovered a significant proportion of people could lick their own elbow.

[Guest]

As well as dabbling in magic, Paul Daniels is a big fan of classic ice cream vans. He currently owns - and regularly drives - an early example of the Bedford CF. "The difficulty is obtaining period product decals", he laments. "Whilst reproductions are available, they are usually limited to popular products - Flake 99s and the like. I've been trying to obtain a period Mini-Milk decal for a number of years to no avail - I can get the modern-style logo for a few pounds, but it would stick out like a sore thumb". His wife, Debbie, is supportive of his hobby but insists that he doesn't talk about it in the house. Some of his neighbours, however, are not so supportive - Elton John once came to blows with him over it. "He just gets in it at all times of the day and starts playing the music" Elton fumes. "Ding-ding-ding-ding-di-ding! Tell you what, next time... he won't be so lucky" he stated, menacingly.

[chaseracer]

...it is impossible to lick your own elbow.

My late father-in-law, a Scottish GP of the old school, advised that you should never put anything in your ear canal smaller than your elbow.

 

[Andrew353w]

Over 25% of internet users pick the name of their cat as a password

 

How true...... (FACT!)

[Cavcraft]

Reading in a 1991 copy of Autocar that the BMW 318is is 0.007 seconds quicker from 43.008 to 46.174mph than a VW Golf GTi enables you to flex your e-muscles on Autoshite.

If anyone disagrees with this simply refer to your mother's interwebz page, spit your dummy out then leave in a huff.

[messerschmitt owner]

The Titanic had two near identical sister ships, The Olympic and Britannic, Britannic sank as well but Olympic stayed in service until 1935, when it was broken up in Inverkeithing.

 

Also, it is impossible to lick your own elbow.

Olympic was cut down to the hull at Jarrow as part of a job creation scheme by the local MP Sir John Jarvis. Her hull was towed to Inverkeithing to Thomas Ward's yard for final breaking in 1937.

 

There were fifteen four funnelled liners but only one five funnelled ocean liner

 

The Britannic sank in twenty minutes whereas Titanic took over two hours to sink, despite the extra protection and double skin fitted to Britannic.

 

Build number of Olympic was 400, Titanic 401 and Britannic 433. All the pieces of Olympic I have at home are stencilled, stamped or engraved SS 400, meaning that for there to be a swap of ships between Titanic and Olympic, that 15,000 Irishmen worked pretty hard for a week swapping every bit of wood from one ship to the other and then kept quiet about it.

 

The sinking of the Lancastria during Operation Arial saw the loss of a minimum of 3,500 men, women and children. It isn't known how many people were on board but the best case scenario was 6000 and the worst 10,000. 2,500 people were rescued from the water which means the death toll could be as high as 7,500, making it the worst disaster in British maritime history.

[Justin Case]

Reading in a 1991 copy of Autocar that the BMW 318is is 0.007 seconds quicker from 43.008 to 46.174mph than a VW Golf GTi enables you to flex your e-muscles on Autoshite.

If anyone disagrees with this by hurling the abuse and obscenities that should be reserved for the sort of ***** who put down bus lanes simply refer to your mother's interwebz page, spit your dummy out then leave in a huff.

 

EFA

[Justin Case]

On a more cheery note

 

Erik Carlsson came 4th in the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally in a Saab 95 estate (entered instead of the 96 because it had a 4 speed gearbox.)

 

Volvo entered a team of 850 estates in the 1994 BTCC, as they were more aerodynamic than the saloons.

[HereHareHere]

Graham Hill entered the 1964 Monte Carlo rally (as won by Paddy Hopkirk in a Mini Cooper) driving this:

 

 

The contest, amazingly, was between the new front-drive, 1,071cc Cooper S entries and the big, 4·7-litre, rear-drive Ford Falcons - works teams head to head in a classic David and Goliath face-off. Goliath won the weigh-in and all the opening rounds, as the fearless Bo Ljungfeldt set fastest times with his Falcon on every stage. And it's worth noting just how scary Ljungfeldt was, even to a team-mate like F1 world champion Graham Hill, who was never notably nervy.

 

Later he told of following Bo and watching him pass other cars by throwing the Falcon up the face of the rocks bordering the road, then dropping back down. "I saw him do it time after time,'' said Hill, "and I still don't believe it.''

[Andrew353w]

Many moons ago I remember overhearing a teenage girlfriend's mother tell her something to the effect that "you should never put anything in your mouth unless it's been boiled"...

 

 

I could name the girl (and her mother!) but that would be taking things TOOOOO far.....