Stolen facts I stubled across!

[topcatcustom]

Shamelessly nicked from another forum but some interesting automotive facts:

Honda devised an efficient engine with a clean exhaust system that didn't require a catalytic converter. However, the three US car giants all had shares in cat-making companies and successfully lobbied government agencies to rule for cats and against cleaner engines.

The Model T Ford was available in any colour outside the USA, the reason Henry Ford chose black was because the pain dried fast allowing him to produce more cars.

The Austin Allegro originally had a square “quartic“ steering wheel.

Triumph went from using 'eared' spinners on its wire wheel to using octagonal 'safety' ones due to American safety fears that you undo one by parking alongside a kerb and then driving off

Adolf Hitler had a false floor fitted into his Mercedes 770K, making him look 5 inches taller, when he stood up in the car.

The MG ZT 260 has no ashtray in the front, as once they'd shoehorned in the engine and gearbox, there wasn't any room left for it.

The MG SV used Fiat Punto front light clusters.

During developement of the MG ZT 260, MG Rover was, as we all know a bit short of cash. So they couldn't afford all the fancy computer simulations and modelling that the big manufacturers would carry out even before construction of a prototype. When the engineers were setting up the rear suspension, they found that under hard acceleration the car was suffering from severe axle tramp but were not sure what was causing it. To cure the problem, they bolted some chains to a big wall, then to the car, then one engineer got in and gave it some welly, whilst another one lay underneath the car to see where all the axle tramp was comming from.

The Pagani Zonda uses the same climate control unit as the Rover 45 and MG ZS.

The Lancia Fulvia was apparently the first mass market manufacturer to fit disk brakes all round to its cars.

The Lotus Elise uses the switches from a Peugeot 205, Engine from a Rover, Indicator stalks of an Astra, Windscreen wipers from a Citroen AX, Wing mirrors from a Rover Metro, Headlights from a Renault 4...

The XJ220 Jag uses the engine block from a Metro 6R4 rally car.

The Renault 4 was the last production car to have flat glass all round (Before you cite the Landrover Defender it’s not a car).

The porsche 911 Sc was supposed to be the last 911 so it was given the SC designation (Super Carrera) as it was going to be replaced once and for all by its intended replacement, the 928, but as we all know the 928 fell off the map a few years ago but the 911 outsold it by far and is still going strong.

Did you know the Fiat Cinquecento originally released in 1992 was actually penned in 1982 but was shelved by Fiat at the time.

The Lamborghini Murcielago uses the same seatbelt buckle socket as the Fiat Cinquecento, It’s just 700 quid more expensive if bought through Lamborghini.

The Lamboughini Countach and the VW Camper Van have the same co-efficient of drag.

Triumph still offered seat-belts as an optional extra for up to two years after the were made a legal requirement in the UK.

Triumph convinced the world they had designed and engineered a completely new car with the TR6. However, if you look at the centre section the TR6 you will notice that it is exactly the same as the TR4/5. Only the front and back were different.

At the end of the Second World War William Rootes (later "sir," brother of Reginald) was sent by the then Labour government to assess the viability of VW as a possible acquisition. He reported back that the factory was in disarray and the company made a totally worthless little car called the Beetle - the entire mess best left to the Germans to fix.

Some VW Beetle's windscreen cleaners were powered by pressure coming from a tube connected to the spare tyre.

Old Ford windscreen wipers were powered from the engine vacuum pressure. They went fast as hell downhill and slowed to a crawl if the engine was working hard going uphill.


The Renault Espace was originally designed for Chrysler. To save money it was even styled around Chrysler Alpine headlamps. When Chrysler then bottled out Matra took the design to Renault who put it into production without changing the look of the car, hence the first Espace still had those blocky reverse rake front lights.

The Rover SD1 production line never ran at full capacity, as a piece of interior trim over the rear wheel arch was more difficult to install than intended. As such it caused a delay to every car on the line.

The instrument binnacle on a Rover SD1 is a separate unit to the rest of the dashboard. This is so that it can just be screwed down on the relevant side for LHD or RHD cars, saving the cost of providing a whole dash for each.

Volvo have the patent on 3-point seatbelts, but have never enforced it.

The Honda Accord was the first Japanese car to be produced in America and had managed to be the best selling car in of the year in America 15 times.

The Renault Feugo was the first car to come with remote central locking.

The Land Rover Series 1 was originally intended to have a central steering wheel, to overcome the lhd/rhd tooling costs.

The voice of the 'speaking dashboard' in certain Austin Rover cars of the 80s was a young lady called Nicolette Mackenzie.

The Ford Probe was destined to be the new Ford Mustang but after a public outcry and petition, Ford backed down and called it the Probe.

The Austin Maxi was the only car to have instructions in the manual on how to make the seating into a bed.

Rolls-Royce engines once held World Speed Records in the Air, on Land and on Water, simultaneously.

In the 1985 European Touring Car Championship, the two main teams were Volvo (with the 240 Turbo Group A) and Rover (with the SD1 Vitesse). Each company had to sell 500 road going models in order to satisfy Homologation rules, which they both did. After inspecting 23 Volvos closely the governing body deemed them elligable for racing. Volvo then stripped the remaining 477 cars of all their homologation goodies and sold them as regular turbos. They were still allowed to compete.

The 1558cc Lotus twin cam, based on the Ford 105E engine, actually has three cams not two. The origional ford cam was left in, to drive the dibby and oil pump.

The second set of injectors fitted to the Ford RS500 Cosworth did not work on the road cars as supplied.

Everyone knows that the Rover V8 was originally the 215cu Buick engine, but not everyone knows that the Buick engine was based on the BMW 507 V8. When GM decided to build an ally V8 their engineers knew nothing about aluminium so they used the 507 V8 as the basis for the design - it seems to have worked well. The real reason GM canned the engine was because the US iron & steel industry went mad and made all sorts of threats, not wishing to lose huge amounts of business if they caught on and so they developed iron thin-wall casting which were closer to the weight of ally but much cheaper.

Mercedes, VAG or BMW don’t make diesel engines. Austrian company AVL supplies the majority of the unit.

It's illegal to hail a cab in the City of London by whistling.

The Vauxhall/Opel Calibra was the most aerodynamic production car in the world until Honda released the Insight.

If you jab the brakes on hard, three times in quick succession in a 1978 Commer PB Diesel van, you can stand it fully on its nose. If you reverse at full speed in a Smart Two-Four and stamp on the brakes you can make the front wheels lift.

And the JCB Fastrac is the only tractor legally allowed to exceed 20mph on a public highway as it is the only tractor fitted with full suspension and air brakes.

Toyota MR2 Turbo's were 'hand assembled' by Yamaha.

BL once sent out a service bulletin to cure water in the spare wheel well in the Morris 1000 boot. The memo said: Drill hole in floor.

The Lamborghini Murcielago uses Focus MK1 indicators.

Honda NSX has a 2 stage flat spare tyre, along with an ciggy lighter powered inflator. Front and rear wheels are different sizes so you put more pressure in it to extend the sidewall.

In order to comply with homogination rules for the TOCA touring car championship Alfa Romeo 155’s came with an illegal body kit in the boot, Similarly Ford RS500’s came with fog lights in the boot (there are air vents where they should go but the wiring is there so you can fit them yourself).

When you select reverse in the new VAG car the air-con goes to recirculation, this way you don’t have to breathe in its exhaust fumes.

Lancia and Alfa have a deserved bad reputation for producing cars that went rusty when not very old. The three chief culprits for this where cheap steel they purchased from Russia exchange for giving the Russians the factory tooling to built Fiats as Ladas, the use of a sponge substance as padding that retained water in the car and the bare metal shells were stored outside the Fiat factory and next to a chemical plant.

Early 1979 Lotus Sunbeams had a Chrysler Badge in the grille and a Talbot badge on the bonnet and Lotus badges on the wings.

Rover 800 coupes where hand built.

The Citroen CX’s, Xantia's and BX's handbrake worked the front wheels.

Alpina, a company long specialising in making hotted up BMWs used to only modify cars with engine blocks that had done over 60,000 miles. They reasoned that the internal stresses in the casting had been dissipated after this time.

Some early Nissan Bluebird’s and Toyota Camry’s came with a reserve fueltank.

The Lancia Gamma had power steering pump run from the Cam belt. Starting it from cold on full lock often caused the belt to break.

The Porsche 993 turbos pistons are forgings that at TDC stand 4.2 to 5mm proud of the barrels to ensure that at peak firing pressure near TDC there is less pressure on the cylinder head gaskets.

The NA 993 engine has curved cooling fan fins for NVH reasons to minimise the intrusive fan whine (this was not the case on some of the older air cooled 911s). On the Turbo engine- to get better cooling efficiency and perhaps to reprioritise for maximum heat rejection straight blades are used again on the cooling fan.

Some Porsche models had a belt-driven vane pump (by Mitsubishi), that blew clean air into the exhaust system, to comply with/cheat some emission standards.

[seight]

Some funny stuff there. I like the one about the Zonda climate control system. The one about the LR central steering wheel is just nuts.

Definitely true about the VW spare tyre - I thought it was almost all of them.

Mike

[Ian Anderson]

I'd query the Renault 4 being the last car with flat glass

What about the original Fiat Panda and Seat Marbella?

Ian

[ian.stewart]

anther bit of ole tat, Minis originally had the speedo in a central position, but due to France and America saying the spedo was unsafe in that position as you had to look down and away at it, they refused to sell it, hence the more conventional speedo position fitted to later minis,
How short our memories are, have a look at most french cars these days, they all have a centeral instrument cluster, so much for safety

[kiwicar]

"And the JCB Fastrac is the only tractor legally allowed to exceed 20mph on a public highway as it is the only tractor fitted with full suspension and air brakes."
Have you ever tried to follow one of these down a B road or country lane?
They are seriously quick for 4.5 tonnes, especially on "spraying tyres" and the driver can see over the hedges where you can't
Mike

[HairbearTE]

A lot of VW parts feature in the new Lambos, as you'd expect. Front pads for a Gallardo are 400 quid from Lambo but the same pads are are used on the Audi S4, S6, S8 models and can be had for just over 100 quid from VW. Not too bad when you find out there are 8 of 'em!

[kiwi303]

Honda devised an efficient engine with a clean exhaust system that didn't require a catalytic converter. However, the three US car giants all had shares in cat-making companies and successfully lobbied government agencies to rule for cats and against cleaner engines.

Nissans L series 6 cyl engines exceeded clean air californian standards without a cat in the 70's, fitting the cat to US market cars lowered fuel economy and increased pollution levels over non-cat models.

[kiwicar]

Honda devised an efficient engine with a clean exhaust system that didn't require a catalytic converter. However, the three US car giants all had shares in cat-making companies and successfully lobbied government agencies to rule for cats and against cleaner engines.

Nissans L series 6 cyl engines exceeded clean air californian standards without a cat in the 70's, fitting the cat to US market cars lowered fuel economy and increased pollution levels over non-cat models.

Over the period leading up to the introduction of cats most manufacturers had high efeciency lean burn engines under development, some very interesting lean burn uniflow 2 strokes, some with high swirl cylinder heads that ran air to fuel ratios in the 18 to 20:1 region giving very high fuel economy figures, and very high eficieny high power small capacity engines based on swash plate designs. Unfortunatly various interests decided that keeping fuel economy down and creating a market for hard to find metals was more important than clean air and cutting car emisions (oh dear I am sounding like a paranoid conspiricy theorist)
Best regards
Mike

[harvey]

The Lancia Gamma had power steering pump run from the Cam belt. Starting it from cold on full lock often caused the belt to break.

Early Rover 800's with the K series engine had the same set-up. The pump was driven off the back of the exhaust camshaft. It didn't have to be cold for it to break the belt on full lock. Hopeless. Later ones had the pump driven off the crank pulley.

[topcatcustom]

The Lancia Gamma had power steering pump run from the Cam belt. Starting it from cold on full lock often caused the belt to break.

Early Rover 800's with the K series engine had the same set-up. The pump was driven off the back of the exhaust camshaft. It didn't have to be cold for it to break the belt on full lock. Hopeless. Later ones had the pump driven off the crank pulley.

Who the hell would ever decide to do that?! It was obviously a friday 4:30pm decision

[ChrisJC]

The Montego / Maestro Turbo Diesel was the same. They didn't break belts. Mind you, it was a whopping great cam belt!

Chris.