Useless car trivia

esta · Post by **esta** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:36 pm

Just been told some interesting car trivia...

Did you know that every Lamborghini is named after a Champion Fighting Bull !!!

Anyone else got any interesting facts?

martinholmesuk · Post by **martinholmesuk** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:40 pm

yeah. I washed my 480 today, first time in 3 months.

Murf · Post by **Murf** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:53 pm

Err, nothing special! The MR2 was japans first mid engined car and was designed in conjunction with Lotus. It wasnt really meant to be a sports car as such, more a practical 2 seater for going shopping in etc, it was just luck it turned out to be such a superb handling car!
Most people would have you believe it stands for "Mid engined, RWD, 2 seater." It actually stands for " Mid-ship, runabout, 2 seater." Sounds crap though so i dont quote that very often!!

Jap car rant/lecture over

martinholmesuk · Post by **martinholmesuk** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:58 pm

a practical 2 seater for going shopping in etc

Lucky you got the mx5 then

only joking. MatBat sold his greddy turbo kit and yesterday spent $1200 on a superhcarger kit. Someone also slashed the hood and push it down the road trying to start it. Lucky it had no HT leads lol.

SMOOTH 480 · Post by **SMOOTH 480** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:41 am

did you know the suzuki swift gti 1300 had a bike engine that had a special head to allow it to produce more torque with solid lifters and a chip it will rev to 12000 rpm

Dan the 480 Man · Post by **Dan the 480 Man** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:39 pm

Volvo were the first company to use a seatbelt-it was their design-if they had patented the idea, it would have made them millions. Read it in one of my Volvo books somewhere...

Oh yeah, and 'Donkey Kong' should have been 'Monkey Kong', but a fax at the time was read wrong or something and it ended up Donkey. And he probably had a car, so it's still on topic.

esta · Post by **esta** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:43 pm

The Aston Martin DB7 was originally the new Jaguar XK8 (to replace the XJS), but it was when Ford started to take over Jaguar, and they sold the design to AM-so now when people say that the XK is just a copy of the AM you can tell them they are ignorant!!

(Which was the reason i got mad t the stuid woman on Top Gear a while ago who ignorantly said "I dont like it, its just a copy of an aston Martin

)

EJ

kinkersaab · Post by **kinkersaab** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:33 pm

The Mitsubishi Starion was supposed to be called Stallion, but was miss heard when spoken by the japanese.

Cerberus · Post by **Cerberus** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:44 pm

esta wrote:The Aston Martin DB7 was originally the new Jaguar XK8 (to replace the XJS), but it was when Ford started to take over Jaguar, and they sold the design to AM-so now when people say that the XK is just a copy of the AM you can tell them they are ignorant!! (Which was the reason i got mad t the stuid woman on Top Gear a while ago who ignorantly said "I dont like it, its just a copy of an aston Martin )

EJ

I was in an Aston Owners Club hospitality suite at silverstone once.. Around the time the DB7 was launched. Some one rocked up in his nice 'brand new' DB7 and the crowds began to form... I wandered over and rather too loudly said "oh, you brought a DB7...? The ba$tard son of Jaguar, well done you!" Always hated that car...

I wasn't very popular...

Later our DB5 took 98 points and set a record for points in the AMOC
concours... Then we were even less popular...

For my factoid..

The Nissan 200sx was a failed submission for the design of the 300ZX.
It didn't make the cut as the chosen design but Nissan liked it too
much to bin it. So they just up and built it anyway and called it the 200sx.

esta · Post by **esta** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:23 pm

Cerberus wrote:
esta wrote:The Aston Martin DB7 was originally the new Jaguar XK8 (to replace the XJS), but it was when Ford started to take over Jaguar, and they sold the design to AM-so now when people say that the XK is just a copy of the AM you can tell them they are ignorant!! (Which was the reason i got mad t the stuid woman on Top Gear a while ago who ignorantly said "I dont like it, its just a copy of an aston Martin )

EJ
I was in an Aston Owners Club hospitality suite at silverstone once.. Around the time the DB7 was launched. Some one rocked up in his nice 'brand new' DB7 and the crowds began to form... I wandered over and rather too loudly said "oh, you brought a DB7...? The ba$tard son of Jaguar, well done you!" Always hated that car...

I wasn't very popular...

Later our DB5 took 98 points and set a record for points in the AMOC
concours... Then we were even less popular...

ha ha rock on, nice one!

EDIT: You have a DB5????? AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

ANOTHER FACT:

The Ford Capri was going to be called the Capriano/Capriani (cant remember exact speling)...but someone pointed out that this was greek for Goats *poo*

lee · Post by **lee** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:49 pm

the volvo 480 wasn't going to have pop ups when it was in the design stage. They had to fit pops in the end so that the headlight level would meet the headlight level in the usa

lee · Post by **lee** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:53 pm

the volvo 240 turbo was only available in lhd due to turbo being underneath the brake res. The heat from the turbo would boil the fuild resulting in no brakes

esta · Post by **esta** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:54 pm

lee wrote:the volvo 480 wasn't going to have pop ups when it was in the design stage. They had to fit pops in the end so that the headlight level would meet the headlight level in the usa

At last, US specs have helped create something better rather than ruining potentially good designs lol

Dan the 480 Man · Post by **Dan the 480 Man** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:02 pm

The Ford Sierra (as in the old RS500

shape and D plate Cosworth Shape

was actually prototyped as the Probe.

Murf · Post by **Murf** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:48 pm

The MR2 was renamed the MR for the french market as MR2 sounds like Merde!

Murf · Post by **Murf** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:54 pm

Oh, and thanks to Dan i think this thread needs a little bit of Cosworth power:

SMOOTH 480 · Post by **SMOOTH 480** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:56 pm

the sylvia badge is reguarded in japan as the lexus of nissan
they generally share the same floor pan. But have higher spec engines and a better interior finish, The s13 silvia was also available as a soft top

esta · Post by **esta** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:09 pm

Lol, the more random facts i read, the more i remember...

People often wonder why the De Tomaso badge is the letter "I", it was the founders wifes initial "Isobella", apparently as a sign of gratitude for her patience...

SMOOTH 480 · Post by **SMOOTH 480** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:18 pm

tvr made in blackpool was named after its creator trevor

Dan the 480 Man · Post by **Dan the 480 Man** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:27 pm

Murf wrote:Oh, and thanks to Dan i think this thread needs a little bit of Cosworth power:

Boing! Yes please.

And another (sorry esta, not going off topic...)

http://www.fastfordmag.co.uk/resources/ ... d/p500.jpg