Weird car facts...

[Oilchange]

...and papier mache engine blocks!

[Urban Sports]

Pat H said:

Lotus have previous convictions for wonky steering wheels.

Have a look at their effort on my 1987 Esprit...

Still without doubt one of the worst car interiors I have ever seen, not the colour just the fact that it was still being churned out well into the 90's, absolutely shameful.

[Perd Hapley]

Urban Sports said:

Still without doubt one of the worst car interiors I have ever seen, not the colour just the fact that it was still being churned out well into the 90's, absolutely shameful.

But all that padding meant they didn't need to fit airbags.

[Pat H]

Urban Sports said:

Still without doubt one of the worst car interiors I have ever seen, not the colour just the fact that it was still being churned out well into the 90's, absolutely shameful.

I quite like the colour.

But the design, the ergonomics and the execution are laughably poor.

I suspect that the Lotus trimming department consisted of a herd of cows, an axe, a bucket of fish glue and Roy Orbison.

But it also is the Austin Princess stalks, the MGB internal door handles, the Smiths instruments and the random scatter of heater vents which let it down.

I owned this Esprit and a F328 back to back.

The Lotus is dynamically the Ferrari's equal for half the price. But the Ferrari is much easier to drive, a far nicer place to sit and more carefully designed, built and finished.

But there is something about the Lotus which has got under my skin. And I'm not talking about flaking strands of fibreglass.

I hope that I never have to sell it.

[blueg33]

Monty Zoomer said:

Citation needed.

The reason. In the strike ridden 1970's BL's manufacturer of wheels was on strike, and they needed to be able to drive the cars off the production line as stopping production was inordinately expensive. So they commissioned wooden wheels to allow the cars to be driven off the line.

[Ferg]

MotorsportTom said:

The early engines that we're tested for the 6R4 genuinely were cut and re-welded rover V8's before they made them properly.

Picture taken by a PHer whose name escapes me, but eternal thanks.

The V64V fitted to the production Metros shared nothing with the Rover V8 or 'V6', incidentally, being much more like a Cosworth GA with some shared DFV components and head architecture rather like the Cosworth Merc 190.

[iggysport]

Any 316i-325i or 518i-525i panel filter will fit an Ignis Sport

[AppleJuice]

The 2.0-litre B-Series engine (block) design survives to this day - as a commonrail diesel:
B-Series > O-Series / MDi diesel (Prima) > L-Series > G-Series (CRD-FI)

[Dr Jekyll]

blueg33 said:

Monty Zoomer said:

Citation needed.

The reason. In the strike ridden 1970's BL's manufacturer of wheels was on strike, and they needed to be able to drive the cars off the production line as stopping production was inordinately expensive. So they commissioned wooden wheels to allow the cars to be driven off the line.

Rumour has it they actually commissioned 5 wooden wheels (including spare) for each car.

[GAjon]

Dr Jekyll said:

blueg33 said:

Monty Zoomer said:

Citation needed.

The reason. In the strike ridden 1970's BL's manufacturer of wheels was on strike, and they needed to be able to drive the cars off the production line as stopping production was inordinately expensive. So they commissioned wooden wheels to allow the cars to be driven off the line.

Rumour has it they actually commissioned 5 wooden wheels (including spare) for each car.

And they went rusty in days!

[gl20]

In the 1980s Subaru XT turbo Coupe, switching on the wipers automatically engaged the 4WD too. Kind of makes sense if a little OTT.