ryoder 1,384 #1 February 16, 2016 http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/lucas-smoke.jpeg"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 622 #2 February 16, 2016 British? stoopid 6v systems with horrible wiring. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 622 #3 February 16, 2016 Interesting. Spellcheck changed -12v to 6v. Vert de Fert? Apparently I should have said neg 12? Positive ground? Even spellcheck breaks with it!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 558 #4 February 16, 2016 Riddle: Why do Brits drink warm beer? Answer: they have Lucas refrigerators!!!! Lucas: the Prince of Darkness Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #5 February 16, 2016 riggerrobRiddle: Why do Brits drink warm beer? Answer: they have Lucas refrigerators!!!! Lucas: the Prince of Darkness Come come now.... we who have owned many British cars in my long life...... like my first that was a TR3A 1959 with the aftermarket Smiths heater that forced me to buy a Beater with a Heater come November...... We know that some of the best engineered and best built automotive parts in the world... fall off of our little British Sports cars..... especially my damn Jaguars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stumpy 256 #6 February 16, 2016 Thats why the Ariel Atom was invented - there is nothing to fall off it! And what a hoot to drive...Never try to eat more than you can lift Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mr2mk1g 10 #7 February 16, 2016 My British car currently has burnt out resistors on the heater blower motor so I can either have full blast or nothing. Meh, that's basically all I ever used anyway. Oh, and the gearing on the flap which switches from hot to cold air has burnt out. Meh, I just take off an inspection hatch around May and flip it by hand to cool and then in September flip it back to hot. I would replace them but that means taking the whole of the front end of the car off again and it was such a pain in the arse last time I did it I'll leave it until I want to do another suspension upgrade. It's called character. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zep 0 #8 February 16, 2016 normissBritish? stoopid 6v systems with horrible wiring. 6 Volt, he he, someone is giving away their age. I bet you still remember positive earth and dynamos. And it was the Italians that had the horrible wiring, and they still have. Just found the original context. Lucas smoke Gone fishing Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CanuckInUSA 0 #9 February 16, 2016 QuoteThats why the Ariel Atom was invented I'd love the opportunity to turn some laps in with an Atom on a race track. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stumpy 256 #10 February 16, 2016 CanuckInUSAQuoteThats why the Ariel Atom was invented I'd love the opportunity to turn some laps in with an Atom on a race track. Me too. When I decide my midlife crisis is due, that's what I am getting.Never try to eat more than you can lift Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #11 February 16, 2016 Zep***British? stoopid 6v systems with horrible wiring. 6 Volt, he he, someone is giving away their age. I bet you still remember positive earth and dynamos. And it was the Italians that had the horrible wiring, and they still have. Just found the original context. Lucas smoke I had a 1979 Fiat 2000 Spider I bought 1981 used in Florida after I got out of the USAF and went home to go to school. Most screwed up shorting out POS I ever owned.. I managed to resolve the issue by buying a replacement wiring harness made here in the US... The stock one I took apart and the cheap ass copper in the harness was all corroded and green powdery crap in some places. Great car mechanically.. dual overhead cam if I remember right.. but the wiring.... POS from hell. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yoink 321 #12 February 16, 2016 CanuckInUSA Quote Thats why the Ariel Atom was invented I'd love the opportunity to turn some laps in with an Atom on a race track. I did one of those touristy track day events for my birthday in a Supercharged Atom. It was cracking fun. Like a giant go-cart! Windy though... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justme12001 0 #13 February 16, 2016 I've got a '70 MGB that I had electrical trouble with in the mid 90s, it has since been rewired and changed over to a 12 volt system, or it at least has a 12 volt battery instead of two 6 volts. Got rid of the generator and regulator and it now has an alternator. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 261 #14 February 16, 2016 The British also used to have a large motorcycle industry. I once read an interesting book on its decline, and had assembled some quotes from it. Since there may be some industrial issues in common between British cars and motorcycles, I thought it would be fun to post those quotes: Quote Yet chinks in the armour were showing. Brian Slark was service manager for Norton for many years and later an employee of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. “A lot of machine tools were from the 1920s,” he said. “If you had a man working on the same machine tool for 30 years, he knew exactly how much wear there was, and he’d compensate for it. If someone else would work on the machine, there was no way he’d know what to do. It was just worn-out machinery. It’s not like today where you just press a button and everything comes out perfect.” Michael Jackson, another long-time industry insider, recalls similar makeshift practices at various British motorcycle factories. “People would use cigarette wrappers which were probably two thou, and they’d jam it in a machine to make it work,” he said. “When the tools were sent to another factory, nobody could make them work.” Quote Don Brown says factory managers in Britain talked about the need for investing in new equipment and conveyors, but the rule of thumb was that they had to recoup the cost of expenditure within one year. “My goodness,” he said, “the Japanese already were in a two-to-five-year mode for recouping investment.” Quote Joe Heaton, a University of Birmingham (England) doctoral student, recently developed his own creative analysis to explain the industry’s low reinvestment rates. He noted that low depreciation rates for old capital expenditures mandated by antiquated tax and accounting methods in Britain provided a disincentive to industry to invest in new equipment: that is, tax laws rewarded companies for holding on to old capital investments and punished them for making new capital investments, which clearly hurt their competitiveness and productivity in the long run. Quote It’s clear the industry also suffered the usual problems with labour. “If you wanted to introduce a new machine, you could not introduce it without a renegotiation of the piece work rate which might take months,” said veteran motorcycle journalist Frank Melling. “If you wanted to modify the overhead track, you couldn’t do that. You had to negotiate that.” BSA factory employees were prompted to “down tools and walk out on strike” after a commercial photographer dared to plug in his own lights for a catalogue shoot of new models in the late 1950s — only a union electrician was allowed to do that. The book noted that plenty of other factors were involved too, such as the large domestic scooter & motorcycle market in Japan that helped their rise. Source: Shooting Star- The Rise & Fall of the British Motorcycle Industry Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stumpy 256 #15 February 17, 2016 All true, now only really Triumph and Norton left (and to a much lesser extent Ariel and now Brough making niche, expensive, boutique machines). All have been down and out but revitalised, but Triumph especially is making some bikes at the top of their class and others that are as good as anything out there.Never try to eat more than you can lift Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mr2mk1g 10 #16 February 17, 2016 Lotus is still struggling on, albeit under foreign ownership now. Seem to do alright in the US too. And Caterham, though I wouldn't be surprised if none of theirs are road legal in the US. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 1,623 #17 February 17, 2016 My 1946 MG has had one generator, one voltage regulator, one wiring harness, one ignition switch, one ignition coil and one light switch in its 70 years of existence. All are still working well. I did replace the starter motor when it was 64 years old, due to worn out brushes. This is a rather better record than I had with my 1981 Chevy Cavalier or my 1989 Toyota Camry, both of which were lemons. The 'entertainment center' steering wheel switch panel on my 2011 Subaru has also failed.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ryoder 1,384 #18 February 17, 2016 How many miles are on the MG?"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BillyVance 34 #19 February 17, 2016 Dude, the Barber motorsports museum is a helluva place. One of those can't miss destinations, a definite must-see. It also overlooks the Barber motorsports track, which is a world-class facility."Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Niki1 1 #20 February 18, 2016 riggerrob Riddle: Why do Brits drink warm beer? Answer: they have Lucas refrigerators!!!! Lucas: the Prince of Darkness Now that's funny. I don't care who you are.Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done. Louis D Brandeis Where are we going and why are we in this basket? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stumpy 256 #21 February 19, 2016 Or it might be if the brits actually drank warm beer! Never try to eat more than you can lift Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackwallace 3 #22 February 22, 2016 When I got my 52 XK120 a guy told me. Now you'll know why god invented Sundays.: So you can work on your English car, so it will run for the rest of the week. he wasn't lyingU only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler. scr 316 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #23 February 23, 2016 jackwallace When I got my 52 XK120 a guy told me. Now you'll know why god invented Sundays.: So you can work on your English car, so it will run for the rest of the week. he wasn't lying TRUTH.... I spent more than just Sundays working on my 60 XK150S Roadster great fun to drive but way too much work even for an "enthusiastic enthusiast"More shit could vibrate off that car then I had time to retighten the bolts I did manage to get the carbs to stay in sync.. a couple touches of brazing rod once the Unisyn got em right. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackwallace 3 #24 February 23, 2016 Amazon ***When I got my 52 XK120 a guy told me. Now you'll know why god invented Sundays.: So you can work on your English car, so it will run for the rest of the week. he wasn't lying TRUTH.... I spent more than just Sundays working on my 60 XK150S Roadster great fun to drive but way too much work even for an "enthusiastic enthusiast"More shit could vibrate off that car then I had time to retighten the bolts I did manage to get the carbs to stay in sync.. a couple touches of brazing rod once the Unisyn got em right.Would your 150 do 150mph? I was told that's what the numbers meant. I got mine to 140 once running with an XKE. Wind buffeting was huge!!!U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler. scr 316 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #25 February 23, 2016 jackwallace ******When I got my 52 XK120 a guy told me. Now you'll know why god invented Sundays.: So you can work on your English car, so it will run for the rest of the week. he wasn't lying TRUTH.... I spent more than just Sundays working on my 60 XK150S Roadster great fun to drive but way too much work even for an "enthusiastic enthusiast"More shit could vibrate off that car then I had time to retighten the bolts I did manage to get the carbs to stay in sync.. a couple touches of brazing rod once the Unisyn got em right.Would your 150 do 150mph? I was told that's what the numbers meant. I got mine to 140 once running with an XKE. Wind buffeting was huge!!! I never took it over 120 indicated... It could have used some new shoes..... and I was a big chicken to go any faster in it on the out of tune wire wheels ... not that there was any tread showing but I was Po Folk at that point... and a new set of Pirelli's was a tad above my pay grade at the time..... And it gets a bit breezy in that open two seater when you pass the century mark.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites