RE: PH blog: crazy radios

[NickGibbs]

Finlandese said:

NickGibbs said:

Nowhere near the driver this one, but not hard to work out why. Guesses as to the car?

MB 600?

Spot on. This one used to belong to Albanian madman Enver Hoxha.
It's a Becker, but I couldn't work out what the red/green slider did. Heater controls embedded in a volume/tuner slave? It didn't work, sadly

[Carparticus]

SAndals said:

Never mind the radio, what the Daytona interior really needs is that aftermarket compass stuck ontop of the dash!

I had one .. but it mainly pointed towards the engine block, rather than North. Very useful that.

Edited by Carparticus on Tuesday 16th October 14:01

[Ollywood]

STiG911 said:

fat freddie said:

While I'm reminiscing about old Renaults, who remembers the fantastic 80s button-fest systems on the 25?


Am I right in thinking the R25 was the first car in Europe (or even the world) that had stereo control buttons on the steering wheel?

Yes - Renault were one of, if not the first to put controls by the steering wheel.
I soooo wanted a 25 Turbo - before I could drive.

My old man had one too! and I remember having to program a whole load of FM frequencies so it could stay tuned into Radio 1 or 4 as it didn't have AF function.

The R25 also talked! not on the level of knight rider more like a simple toy.

[mikeerhymes]

A bit of a stretch for the driver in an M12 if you look just above the gear stick....

[urquattro]

Rolling around in the boot tool box of the MB 500 sel is the old Becker Mexico, in its place a period, pricey Alpine system, with sat nav, speakers everywhere and enough noise to challenge the Vulcan Bomber, have to keep the windows closed, air con on as it is anti social in full chat.
Seem to remember the sound system cost almost as much as the car. !!

[Finlandese]

jaisharma said:

I'm sure on my Jarama the radio faced towards the driver. Perhaps the one pointing away from the driver was an improvement to stop attempts to drown out the engine.

I´ve seen Jaramas with different installations than the one in the picture. Maybe somebody told them about the function of the dial window.. In any case, I´ve also seen other Jaramas with that facing-away-from-the-driver installation, so I do believe it´s a factory solution (one of them).

Edited by Finlandese on Tuesday 16th October 14:32

[monthefish]

Chris Harris said:

I was looking at mid-engined Renault 5 Turbos the other day, and my eyes were drawn to a shot of the car’s cabin. And one specific aspect of that little cocoon of Bakelite and velour: the hi-fi.

Pic?????????

[Twincam16]

Not visually interesting, but unusual as I discovered lately - the Mk2 Toyota MR2 appears to have its radio where you'd expect, in the middle of the dashboard.

However, only the control unit is there. For reasons best known to Toyota, the actual gubbins of the stereo is hidden in the passenger-side B-pillar.

[LewisR]

Mr E said:

Daniel1 said:

The elise / exige sprung to my mind

Indeed. I have a remote for mine, and it also has a mike for handsfree calling.

I have no idea why. Over 40mph and I can't hear a damn thing.

That's exactly the speed I was going to quote! I remember having to drive slowly along a duel carriageway because an interesting news article came on. That's also assuming that you get a reception in teh first place as the aerial was placed above the engine. the amount of times the FM radio searched over and over and over and found no stations at all !!

[Shaw Tarse]

y2blade said:

Carparticus said:

Chris Harris said:

Crusoe said:

This wins. The end.

Agreed !

Top reason to want an Esprit ..

WOW look at those seats

I can't be the only one who scurried off to check the classifieds?

[Wehrner]

The Porsche and Mini is border line in my opinion, you can almost reach it while driving.

Another one from Ferrari and more recent than most here:


And Citroen did like that centre location…

[Twincam16]

Maserati Merak's was rather oddly-placed, by the driver's right knee:

[msport]

I managed to find the book a few of you are talking about - "Dream Cars", I knew I'd still got it somewhere.
Here's a picture of the inside of a shocking Merc 500SL, by Koenig, even back in the 80s it must have look awful!

[Twincam16]

Crusoe said:

Or you can never have enough graphics equalizers

That's not a stereo, that's a recording studio!

[ziggy1024]

msport said:

I managed to find the book a few of you are talking about - "Dream Cars", I knew I'd still got it somewhere.
Here's a picture of the inside of a shocking Merc 500SL, by Koenig, even back in the 80s it must have look awful!

I'll have the wheels though please!

[405dogvan]

fat freddie said:

While I'm reminiscing about old Renaults, who remembers the fantastic 80s button-fest systems on the 25?


Am I right in thinking the R25 was the first car in Europe (or even the world) that had stereo control buttons on the steering wheel?

That is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest interior I've ever seen and never wish to sit in

[AndrewD]

Carparticus said:

Agreed !

Top reason to want an Esprit ..

Never mind the bloody hifi - seats by Puffa Jacket

[405dogvan]

fat freddie said:

Mk1 Renault 5 I used to have put the radio vertically on the engine bulkhead.

I'm pretty sure that other Renaults have done the same at some point - I can remember scrabbling under the dash for the volume knob on an early/cheap 5 IIRC?

[bigtrev200]

Here's another 'interesting' conversion from the 80s where surely only the fur coat-clad, Paula Hamilton-lookalike passenger has control of how loud the Human League pumps out of the speakers.

[Trommel]

Twincam16 said:

Crusoe said:

Or you can never have enough graphics equalizers

That's not a stereo, that's a recording studio!

Clarion G80, they're like rack-fit separates.

This book was pretty good for the same sort of thing too: