Urban myths about cars

[number2301]

The most ridiculous urban car myth I've ever heard, in a review of the car no less -

The 205 GTI 1.9 is nose heavy compared to the 1.6 due to the bigger engine.

Utter tosh.

[mat205125]

number2301 said:

The most ridiculous urban car myth I've ever heard, in a review of the car no less -

The 205 GTI 1.9 is nose heavy compared to the 1.6 due to the bigger engine.

Utter tosh.

I heard a similar rumour many years ago. That sump spacer, longer throw crank and oil cooler must be proper heavy

[Poledriver]

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

[Hooli]

liner33 said:

Hooli said:

speed kills - the biggest myth of all

Tell that to Donald Campbell

i think you'll find it was the stop that killed him - probably as he hit the water.

[mat205125]

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Not automotive, but that's the same reason that the Nintendo game Donkey Kong is so called, as the translator misheard / got wrong the word Monkey.

ETA

.... and the Honda CBR900 was intended to be named the lightning, but this came out as fireblade

Edited by mat205125 on Wednesday 12th March 19:58

[The Black Duke]

apparently when the TVR was named they were after the RAC but the copyrighter was dyslexic.
Only joking.

[The Black Duke]

number2301 said:

The most ridiculous urban car myth I've ever heard, in a review of the car no less -

The 205 GTI 1.9 is nose heavy compared to the 1.6 due to the bigger engine.

Utter tosh.

But doesnt a bigger engine mean heavier HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Coolio

[sniff petrol]

The Black Duke said:

number2301 said:

The most ridiculous urban car myth I've ever heard, in a review of the car no less -

The 205 GTI 1.9 is nose heavy compared to the 1.6 due to the bigger engine.

Utter tosh.

But doesnt a bigger engine mean heavier HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Coolio

They are the same head and block, the 1905cc is just a longer stroke but the same bore as the 1.6

[tali1]

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Pratt Clarkson wrecked the last Starion sold in UK
http://www.starion-turbo.co.uk/ 

[davido140]

I heard that Mercedes ended up developing the A class (thats the silly mini MPV one right?) due to a leak from BMW about a similar car they were designing.

But the leak was fabricated, and Merc spent a fortune developing a turkey, that fell over when it went round corners.

Probably horse crap.

Edited by davido140 on Wednesday 12th March 20:27

[Negative Creep]

The Allegro was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards - true. However, this acutely applies to a lot of cars

[Jderh]

tali1 said:

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Pratt Clarkson wrecked the last Starion sold in UK
http://www.starion-turbo.co.uk/ 

I am pretty damn sure that the rally prepped one wrecked in that episode was in fact not the same car, given that I saw the red car alledgedly used or that episode for sale some time later.....

[Boosted LS1]

Negative Creep said:

The Allegro was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards - true. However, this acutely applies to a lot of cars

And bullets, I think.

[Negative Creep]

Boosted LS1 said:

Negative Creep said:

The Allegro was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards - true. However, this acutely applies to a lot of cars

And bullets, I think.

All we need is an Allegro and a gun. Two problems solved at once

[sadako]

mat205125 said:

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Not automotive, but that's the same reason that the Nintendo game Donkey Kong is so called, as the translator misheard / got wrong the word Monkey.

ETA

.... and the Honda CBR900 was intended to be named the lightning, but this came out as fireblade

Edited by mat205125 on Wednesday 12th March 19:58

Starion one is false and the truth is more bizarre. Someone in marketing had been watching too much starwars and called it the Star Ion, hense the shooting star logo. It was released as a Pontiac in the US iirc.

The Donkey Kong thing wasn't a bad translation, it was a single character error over international telex, although some stories suggest Myamoto looked up Donkey, translated it to "Stubborn and goofy" and thought it'd be a good name for the stubborn monkey... The most plausible one is the telex error.

[The Black Duke]

sniff petrol said:

The Black Duke said:

number2301 said:

The most ridiculous urban car myth I've ever heard, in a review of the car no less -

The 205 GTI 1.9 is nose heavy compared to the 1.6 due to the bigger engine.

Utter tosh.

But doesnt a bigger engine mean heavier HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Coolio

They are the same head and block, the 1905cc is just a longer stroke but the same bore as the 1.6

I Know I had an MI16 in mine

[Twincam16]

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Untrue, I'm afraid. I got the truth straight from the horse's mouth back in January (spoke to the guy in charge of Mitsubishi's marketing in the '80s).

At the time, Mitsubishi weren't naming their cars after horses as the myth suggests (they were called Colt in the '70s to make the Japanese car sound more acceptable in a UK that still remembered the war), but after constellations - the engine series they were using was called the 'Star', and the cars were being names after constellations - Cordia, Tredia etc.

They wanted to call the sports coupe the Mitsubishi Orion, but Ford surprised them at the last minute by bringing out a car called the Orion.

'Starion' is actually a last-minute contraction of 'Star-Orion'.

I think the Starion/Stallion story was put around as a myth.

[Hooli]

tali1 said:

Poledriver said:

The Mitsubishi Stallion should have had it's model name communicated in writing, not verbally!
BTW, are there any Starions still on the road?

Pratt Clarkson wrecked the last Starion sold in UK
http://www.starion-turbo.co.uk/ 

arrrghhh its that bloody kid again, how the hell did she get famous?

[dougc]

Not sure whether they are true or not but often repeated:

The buttresses on the rear window of the XJS are a hangover from the original mid-engined concept.
The Toyota MR2 is called the MR in France on account of the French pronunciation of MR2 sounding like the word 'st'
In Spain the Mitsubishi Pajero was renamed the Montero as its original name means 'wr'

And the old classic

Henri Toivonen once lapped Estoril in a Lancia S4 quick enough to get a decent grid position in the GP that year.

Which people still argue about....

[Sam_68]

Hooli said:

liner33 said:

Hooli said:

speed kills - the biggest myth of all

Tell that to Donald Campbell

i think you'll find it was the stop that killed him - probably as he hit the water.

Actually, from the coroner's report and the evidence uncovered when the wreck was raised, his body punched out through the side of the cockpit (including tearing a big hole through some pretty large-section steel tubes) when the boat hit the water, causing massive damage to one side of his body and possibly completely destroying his head in the process (certainly, what they burried in Coniston graveyard a few years ago didn't include a head).

Donald Campbell was moving, the boat wasn't.

In that case, relative speed killed.

But to bring the tale back on topic with urban myths (albeit not car related)... there is a persistent rumour that Campbell's head was still inside his helmet (recovered, floating in the lake shortly after the crash) but that this was covered up at the time as being thought too gruesome for public consumption.

My grandfather was a hotelier in the Lake District and knew Norman Buckley (also a hotelier and solicitor), close friend of Donald Campbell and the Windermere Motorboat Racing Club Official responsible for the final record attempt. My grandfather told me that Buckley had told him that the rumour was true... but that's third hand information, of course.

Edited by Sam_68 on Thursday 13th March 17:59