Weird car facts...

[XJ84]

shakotan said:

carlove said:

tali1 said:

The Merc A class Lwb had more rear room than the S class of the time

They made a Lwb A-Class?

Do you not remember the tv advertisement, where the Mercedes salesman is lining up some A-class cars, and notices one is stick out a bit, so he pushes it back to line the nose up, goes around the back to fit the arse sticking out 6 inches, leaving him all confused?

I tried finding it on YouTube without success...

Yes I do, that was a very funny advert!!

[Waugh-terfall]

Clivey has one in the family. Crazy fact of the day.

[carlove]

Can't believe I cant remember that ad. Sounds like it's an easy advert to remember.

[TomN1994]

Mini's like this http://i54.tinypic.com/2is7dqu.jpg had to have stoppers put in front of the door handles, as before they acted like a hook, to one lads misfortune many years ago as he was caught on one, dragged along and killed by it.

[TomN1994]

G350 said:

Of course, that rear window shape was a Discovery feature from the start, only it was hidden by the rear spare.

Now thats a proper random fact, one i was completely unaware of, the Disco 1 & 2's also had the window kink.

[Lets Torque]

Lets Torque said:

NERD ALERT

On the Discovery 3 & 4 Land Rover had that kink in the back window put on the right side to aid parking for LHD variants , (where there biggest market is) , but for RHD they just left the back window the same as LHD , so the kink is no help to us becuase it is directly behind us.

Pictures:

The Discovery 3




The Discovery 4



I told you i was a nerd!

Did you know why they put the kink in the opposite side of the window for the Disco 3 & 4. The above explains it...

[G350]

Lets Torque said:

Did you know why they put the kink in the opposite side of the window for the Disco 3 & 4. The above explains it...

Disco 1 had RHD as biggest market so kink was always for reversing visibility and spare wheel mounting forced the kink.

With the spare in boot floor for Disco 3 & 4 why put a kink in the window at all and not just have the window line low across the whole width of the car for both RHD and LHD markets? Styling is the answer to that, not design.

[XG332]

The Ford GT uses side indicators from Discovery 3, freelander 2 and Range Rover Sport (well at least the Ford GT race cars do)

[sebhaque]

You cannot drive an SMG-equipped BMW with the doors or bonnet open.

[Paulbav]

SaltyToe said:

A Lotus Elise has the same indictor/wiper stalks as a Vauxhall Corsa


Elise -


Corsa -

And the same window buttons as an 87 Vauxhall carlton CD....

[gowmonster]

if you hold the button on the wiper stalk in in a laguna 2 then start the car the dials do a little dance.

{video}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8{/video}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8

Edited by gowmonster on Monday 14th November 23:15

[dudleybloke]

gowmonster said:

if you hold the button on the wiper stalk in in a laguna 2 then start the car the dials do a little dance.

{video}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8{/video}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8

Edited by gowmonster on Monday 14th November 23:15

thats to initiate the self-destruct device..............

[busta]

dudleybloke said:

gowmonster said:

if you hold the button on the wiper stalk in in a laguna 2 then start the car the dials do a little dance.

{video}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8{/video}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeE1IQD5e8

Edited by gowmonster on Monday 14th November 23:15

thats to initiate the self-destruct device..............

...just incase Renault forgot to initiate it as it left the factory.

[carmadgaz]

yellowbentines said:

Ford deliberately made the space available to normal humans to access and change the Mk1 Focus NSF bulbs so inaccessible so that you had to take the car to the dealership and pay for 1hr labour for them to change a bulb.

They then shipped over a containerload of vietnamese child orphans with ridiculously small hands to perform the task at each dealership in 5 minutes, thus making a huge profit on the markup.

Seriously? It's a pain but took me very little time to move the battery tray far enough to get the cover off.

[Hugo a Gogo]

mk1 focus bulbs, piece of piss when you know what you are doing

[Alfa numeric]

You can't open the boot of a MINI when the engine's running. Anyone know why?

[Waugh-terfall]

Alfa numeric said:

You can't open the boot of a MINI when the engine's running. Anyone know why?

Sure you can. Try flicking the Unlock switch on the dash first.

[Alfa numeric]

It's still annoying though...

[LotusOmega375D]

Not sure if this has been covered in the previous 40 pages, but if you dump the clutch of a stationary Lotus Carlton at 2700+ rpm, the ECU temporarily switches to a higher boost mode, which gives you about 408bhp for max. 10 seconds compared to the regular 377bhp. It's colloquially known as GPS mode (for Grand Prix Start), so is great for Traffic Light Grand Prix or Santa Pod.

I guess it's really only for those owners who like the expensive smell of a cooked clutch and tyres. It's like the insane 177mph top speed, in that it's nice to know it's there if you should ever need it!

[benjj]

The original Saab 900i

This one:



...had door handles that were designed to carry the weight of the car. Ergo, if you stuffed it off a snowy road the car could be towed out by a rope lashed to the door handle.

Wonder what would happen if you tried it on a sh*tbox GM derived 93?