Tin O' Spam
Well-Known Member
Some automotive trivia for you all...
During the development of the Jaguar XFR, the engineers working on the project unofficially codenamed it "Weapon of Choice"
The distinctive and traditional black rear pillars on Range Rovers all stems from a quick repair on the 1970 model. Shortly before it went on sale, someone noticed that the aluminium pillars looks rippled, and rubbish as a result. Since the rippled effect couldn't be removed from the pillars, the engineers simply covered them with black vinyl, accidentally giving birth to a design feature that remains on the Range Rover today.
Back when Vauxhall designed its own cars from scratch. It had a styling studio in Luton with an outside yard so that the designs could be seen under natural light. However, a block of apartments was then built overlooking the yard. Realising that the upper-floor residents would see into the top-secret yard, Vauxhall simply bought every apartment overlooking the studio, and left them empty. Years later, the Luton design centre closed, and Vauxhall sold the apartments for a tidy profit.
Peugeot may be best known for its cars and (to some extent) bicycles, but the company has owned a range of businesses over the years, including a kitchen appliance company that released a food processor in the 1960s called the Peugimix
During the 2002 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, Pedro De La Rosa broke down on the far side of the track. He got out of his stricken car, and jumped over a low wall without checking what was on the other side. As it turns out, itt was a river.
The Edsel was a complete disaster for Ford, and they resorted to some pretty desperate plans to salvage some credibility. One such plan was to give every Edsel dealer a live pony. In theory, this was a great idea. Kids would pester their parents to go and see the pony, while the salesman could convince the parents that they really should buy an Edsel while they were there. There were, however, a few little problems with this plan. Firstly, your average car dealership isn't really equipped to deal with a horse. Secondly, would you really want to buy a brand new car from a place that stank of horse excrement? And finally, what were they going to do with hundreds of unwanted ponies when the promotion ended? My guess is that they may not have needed some glue for a while...
The Porsche 924 was designed by Porsche on behalf of Volkswagen. However, VW got cold feet about selling their own sports car, so in the end Porsche took it back and slapped their own badge on the front.
When the McLaren F1 was set to undertake its mandatory 30mph crash test against a concrete block, designer Gordon Murray was so confident of the car's strength that he asked if he could sit in the driver's seat during the test. He was told he couldn't but the testers were surprised at how well the car held up. In fact, apart from the headlights and indicators getting smashed, Murray could have happily driven the car home afterwards.
Porsche isn't just a sports car manufacturer. They have a successful engineering consultancy that helps design and develop cars for other companies including Lada and Kia
Back in the day when Saab didn't just make tarted-up Vauxhalls, their exterior door handles were made strong enough that you could tie a rope around them and pull the whole car out of a ditch, which would have been useful on the slippery roads of Sweden.
One of Fiat's least successful cars in the UK was called the Argenta. Why did it fail? Well, it was released right around the time of the Falklands War, when Britain was at war with....Argentina. Oops
The four-wheel drive system on the Fiat Panda 4X4 was developed by Saab
During the development of the Jaguar XFR, the engineers working on the project unofficially codenamed it "Weapon of Choice"
The distinctive and traditional black rear pillars on Range Rovers all stems from a quick repair on the 1970 model. Shortly before it went on sale, someone noticed that the aluminium pillars looks rippled, and rubbish as a result. Since the rippled effect couldn't be removed from the pillars, the engineers simply covered them with black vinyl, accidentally giving birth to a design feature that remains on the Range Rover today.
Back when Vauxhall designed its own cars from scratch. It had a styling studio in Luton with an outside yard so that the designs could be seen under natural light. However, a block of apartments was then built overlooking the yard. Realising that the upper-floor residents would see into the top-secret yard, Vauxhall simply bought every apartment overlooking the studio, and left them empty. Years later, the Luton design centre closed, and Vauxhall sold the apartments for a tidy profit.
Peugeot may be best known for its cars and (to some extent) bicycles, but the company has owned a range of businesses over the years, including a kitchen appliance company that released a food processor in the 1960s called the Peugimix
During the 2002 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, Pedro De La Rosa broke down on the far side of the track. He got out of his stricken car, and jumped over a low wall without checking what was on the other side. As it turns out, itt was a river.
The Edsel was a complete disaster for Ford, and they resorted to some pretty desperate plans to salvage some credibility. One such plan was to give every Edsel dealer a live pony. In theory, this was a great idea. Kids would pester their parents to go and see the pony, while the salesman could convince the parents that they really should buy an Edsel while they were there. There were, however, a few little problems with this plan. Firstly, your average car dealership isn't really equipped to deal with a horse. Secondly, would you really want to buy a brand new car from a place that stank of horse excrement? And finally, what were they going to do with hundreds of unwanted ponies when the promotion ended? My guess is that they may not have needed some glue for a while...
The Porsche 924 was designed by Porsche on behalf of Volkswagen. However, VW got cold feet about selling their own sports car, so in the end Porsche took it back and slapped their own badge on the front.
When the McLaren F1 was set to undertake its mandatory 30mph crash test against a concrete block, designer Gordon Murray was so confident of the car's strength that he asked if he could sit in the driver's seat during the test. He was told he couldn't but the testers were surprised at how well the car held up. In fact, apart from the headlights and indicators getting smashed, Murray could have happily driven the car home afterwards.
Porsche isn't just a sports car manufacturer. They have a successful engineering consultancy that helps design and develop cars for other companies including Lada and Kia
Back in the day when Saab didn't just make tarted-up Vauxhalls, their exterior door handles were made strong enough that you could tie a rope around them and pull the whole car out of a ditch, which would have been useful on the slippery roads of Sweden.
One of Fiat's least successful cars in the UK was called the Argenta. Why did it fail? Well, it was released right around the time of the Falklands War, when Britain was at war with....Argentina. Oops
The four-wheel drive system on the Fiat Panda 4X4 was developed by Saab
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