Help with a 1980’s Era Memory
Discussion
Hi Guys,
I was wondering if the collective power of PH might help me out.
Thing is these days my memory is not what is was, so indulge me a little.
Back in the late eighties I owned several versions of Triumph Dolomites, including an 1850 HL, and two Dolomite Sprint.
Nothing special about that I hear you say.
Well what I’m trying to find, and failing to, is the Electronic Driving computer I fitted to each of them.
For the life of me I cant find any references to them.
All I can remember it was a black box, about the size of a fag packet that you mounted on your dash. It had a Blue, electroluminescent display, IE not LED or LCD.
At the time it was quite leading edge tech, it gave you speed, fuel economy in MPG and range to empty.
I was convinced it was made my Gunsons, the people who make the Visible Spark plug and other engine test stuff.
So does anyone remember it?
I’m really looking for picture of it, perhaps you had one? Perhaps you had a car with one fitted?
Over to the power of PH!
I was wondering if the collective power of PH might help me out.
Thing is these days my memory is not what is was, so indulge me a little.
Back in the late eighties I owned several versions of Triumph Dolomites, including an 1850 HL, and two Dolomite Sprint.
Nothing special about that I hear you say.
Well what I’m trying to find, and failing to, is the Electronic Driving computer I fitted to each of them.
For the life of me I cant find any references to them.
All I can remember it was a black box, about the size of a fag packet that you mounted on your dash. It had a Blue, electroluminescent display, IE not LED or LCD.
At the time it was quite leading edge tech, it gave you speed, fuel economy in MPG and range to empty.
I was convinced it was made my Gunsons, the people who make the Visible Spark plug and other engine test stuff.
So does anyone remember it?
I’m really looking for picture of it, perhaps you had one? Perhaps you had a car with one fitted?
Over to the power of PH!
And if it helps, the method it used to pick up speed and fuel flow was quirky too.
The package came with several set of magnets, that you had to fix to the propshaft with double sided pads as zip ties.
It then had a transducer pickup that sensed the number of rotations.
You then reset the distance, drove a measured 1 Mile length of road, and then programmed that into the computer so it knew a measured mile.
The package came with several set of magnets, that you had to fix to the propshaft with double sided pads as zip ties.
It then had a transducer pickup that sensed the number of rotations.
You then reset the distance, drove a measured 1 Mile length of road, and then programmed that into the computer so it knew a measured mile.
From the fuel flow measurement, it had a device that went in line between the fuel pipe from the engine, to the supply pipe to the carbs.
Again this is where my memory is not so good, I think it looked almost exactly like a fuel pressure regulator like this,
Obviously it had a flow sensor in it, and then an output cable that fed to the computer head display!
Again this is where my memory is not so good, I think it looked almost exactly like a fuel pressure regulator like this,
Obviously it had a flow sensor in it, and then an output cable that fed to the computer head display!
I was thinking it might be similar to this type of thing from Chrysler, of course this looks very American, I have fonder memories of the unit I owned looking better than this!
https://www.allpar.com/technology/EVIC.php
https://www.allpar.com/technology/EVIC.php
Rozzers said:
I think it was a Sparkrite you were referring to, the Voyager.
Rozzers, you my friend are a genius!It wasn’t the Sparkrite Voyager, but those image related searches found me these!
So it was actually a ZT4!
I’m still convinced mine was the same unit labelled Gunsons though.
Perhaps they white label branded it?
aeropilot said:
I have a vague memory of someone at work fitting one of those things to his Granada Ghia Coupe, and us all laughing at him.
Was about that era so probably a similar type of unit.I’m pretty sure all my mates laughed at me too.
But I became very smug about it when my Advanced Driving instructor commented on what a useful tool it was!
Still they are all happy and now all too distant memories now too sadly!
nigelpugh7 said:
aeropilot said:
I have a vague memory of someone at work fitting one of those things to his Granada Ghia Coupe, and us all laughing at him.
Was about that era so probably a similar type of unit.I’m pretty sure all my mates laughed at me too.
But I became very smug about it when my Advanced Driving instructor commented on what a useful tool it was!
He was a gadget geek though, so would buy all sorts of useless junk if it was 'the latest thing'.
aeropilot said:
I think that's why we were laughing at him, as he drove that Granny V6 like he stole it all the time, thinking he was in The Sweeney or something, so it seemed such a pointless thing to do
He was a gadget geek though, so would buy all sorts of useless junk if it was 'the latest thing'.
He sounds just like me! I’m sure we would get on like a house on fire!He was a gadget geek though, so would buy all sorts of useless junk if it was 'the latest thing'.
9xxNick said:
If you don't find it in the next couple of days I'll have a look through my old Motor magazines of that era and see what I can come up with.
That’s very kind bud cheers,If you do find some it would be great to see a review or an advert of one from that era.
The question is though, where would I have bought it from, there was no online shopping back then!
Hmm more trolling of the old parts of the Pugh memory bank required I think!
nigelpugh7 said:
aeropilot said:
I think that's why we were laughing at him, as he drove that Granny V6 like he stole it all the time, thinking he was in The Sweeney or something, so it seemed such a pointless thing to do
He was a gadget geek though, so would buy all sorts of useless junk if it was 'the latest thing'.
He sounds just like me! I’m sure we would get on like a house on fire!He was a gadget geek though, so would buy all sorts of useless junk if it was 'the latest thing'.
Sadly, he was killed in a motorbike accident 2 years ago.
aeropilot said:
You probably would have.
Sadly, he was killed in a motorbike accident 2 years ago.
Ah sorry to hear that bud, I hope he is having fun in petrolhead heaven.Sadly, he was killed in a motorbike accident 2 years ago.
All of this retro cars and stuff is making me pretty sad too, as my best mate Ade, who we spent so much time together playing with cars and models over the years passed away from Cancer three years ago.
He would have loved all this reminiscing, and would have taken the pi** out of me for all of my comments and stupid dreams too.
Have a good laugh at us all where you are now Ade, miss you Bud.
So now that we have managed to find out it was a Zemco ZT4 manufactured driving computer, I’ve been doing some digging.
It looks like it was sold under other manufacturers brand names, with Volvo being one and Jaeger another.
I couldn’t see the actual face plate of the Unipart one from the Acclaim thread, so still not sure about that one.
Here’s the same unit branded Volvo and Jaeger.
It looks like it was sold under other manufacturers brand names, with Volvo being one and Jaeger another.
I couldn’t see the actual face plate of the Unipart one from the Acclaim thread, so still not sure about that one.
Here’s the same unit branded Volvo and Jaeger.
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