What exists on an old car that most people wouldn't recognise today?

[Skd884]

Still available if you have Alcantara coverings ..

I do and yes they are present !

Hahaha

 

[KennyN]

Rear badges that actually bore some resemblance to the displacement under the bonnet.

K

 

[roviw1]

A fuel filler that was hidden behind the folding rear number plate.

Bonus points if you can name the car.

BMW e3 as well

 

[poormansporsche]

Naturally aspirated diesels. What no turbo?

Last ones i can think of were various VAG models using SDI n/a engines. No doubt killed off by EU emissions standards.

Back in 2003 just before the Mk5 came out we went and test drove a pre reg MK4 Golf SDi with 50 miles on the clock, it was stupidly cheap something like 9.5k ! It was absolute £hite, dangerously slow and wasn't even that economical. We paid the grand extra and bought the petrol one Then there was delays on the Mk5 and our MK4 actually went up in value !

 

[Wolfie1]

A fuel filler that was hidden behind the folding rear number plate.

Bonus points if you can name the car

A fuel filler that was hidden behind the folding rear number plate.

Bonus points if you can name the car.

Mk 2 escort (australian spec)

 

[Williamwoo]

Mk 2 escort (australian spec)

That's interesting. Any idea why they needed to do it? It must have entailed considerable re-engineering for a relatively small market I would have thought.

 

[Darrell]

A fuel filler that was hidden behind the folding rear number plate.

Bonus points if you can name the car.

I was in Fort Lauderdale for a mates wedding in 1988 and we went out for a cruise in his crappy green 70’s car.
We needed some petrol and pulled into a very dodgy petrol station in a very dodgy part of town. I think it was Sistrunk Boulevard.

Picture the scene.
5 skinny white boys looking for the filler cap on a car in a very iffy part of the world!!

It was behind the rear number plate.

 

[Phil1968]

A slight variation on the theme from two wheels.

When a motorcycle used the same lever for both kick start and gear change.

Again bonus points if you can name the bike. I only know of one make that did this.

CZ? Or Jawa maybe, I know it was one of the eastern bloc manufacturers.

How about carbs you had to 'tickle' before starting from cold? I had a few old Japanese bikes as field bikes in my early teens during the early 80s that did the rounds in our school year, then I had a BSA Bantam, where you had to tickle the carb before starting from cold. Seemed quite alien after the Japanese bikes lol.

 

[Chugg]

That's interesting. Any idea why they needed to do it? It must have entailed considerable re-engineering for a relatively small market I would have thought.

The Aussie mk2’s fuel tank was under the boot floor with a hole in the rear panel and boot floor for the filler neck, not 100% sure why, might have been a bigger range tank and for better/lower CG and weight distribution perhaps? They have a blanking ‘cap’ where UK spec cars have the filler for the tank in the tank well inside the boot. South African mk2’s tanks were strapped to the the top inside the boot under the rear window scuttle, which I think always looks a bit odd and you seem to be filling it up from the bottom!

 

[190]

CZ? Or Jawa maybe, I know it was one of the eastern bloc manufacturers.

It was, I think Jawa and CZ merged about that time.

My mate had a Jawa 175 in the 70's so I saw this strange arrangement first hand. You flicked the gear lever up and it became a kick starter after which it returned to the horizontal position as a gear lever. Whatever the clever mechanism going on inside the gearbox, it worked fine and seemed reliable.

How about carbs you had to 'tickle' before starting from cold? I had a few old Japanese bikes as field bikes in my early teens during the early 80s that did the rounds in our school year, then I had a BSA Bantam, where you had to tickle the carb before starting from cold.

I had a Triumph Bonneville with Amal carbs and ticklers. Aside from the stinker finger, ticklers were a clever solution as they simply increased the fuel level in the float bowl to richen the mixture. The clever bit was the automatic shut off as once you rode off, the fuel level gradually fell until it was back under normal control of the floats. Automation that actually worked which you couldn't say of automatic chokes in the early years. Remember the manual choke conversion kits that became popular.

An even more elegant application on a similar principle to ticklers was the SU carbs common on British Leyland cars. Tickling was out of the question with the carbs not being as easily accessible so what they did with SU's was to lower the central jet which was effectively the same thing as raising the fuel level. Great carbs SU's and infinitely tuneable.

 

[Darrell]

A knob on the steering wheel.

 

[Trickythemerc]

These days they are fitted behind the steering wheel..................

 

[Deleted member 126251]

..............




I had a Triumph Bonneville with Amal carbs and ticklers. .............

An even more elegant application on a similar principle to ticklers was the SU carbs common on British Leyland cars. Tickling was out of the question with the carbs not being as easily accessible so what they did with SU's was to lower the central jet which was effectively the same thing as raising the fuel level. Great carbs SU's and infinitely tuneable.

Triumph , BSA .....and a few Allen keys, spanners and rags in your pocket to fight the oil leaks.

I recall riding pillion with my friend on his BSA 650 when the rag he kept stuffed between the saddle and tank got partly sucked into one of the carbs (he’d fitted ‘velocity stacks' without any filters or mesh). He’d stopped at the side of the road and was revving the engine blowing bits of rag out of the (unmuffled) exhausts when a bottle of milk exploded next to us. 2am and someone in the block of flats was annoyed.....luckily it didn’t hit one of us.

SU carbs - Twin SU’s in my MBG GT and bending over with a tube in my ear to listen to the suction. I eventually got one of those balancing gizmos.
Ignition timing strobes.....chalk mark on the drive pulley....
Two 6v batteries in series under the back seat that were always flat...I hated that car.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Cars with the engine at the back.

I had a Renault R10.

 

[del320]

Cars with the engine at the back.

I had a Renault R10.

Renault still makes' em

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Renault still makes' em

View attachment 125408

& and now that I think about it Porsche

 

[SpikyMikey]

These days they are fitted behind the steering wheel..................

 

[Flyinspanner]

An AtoZ ….. or Atlas of Great Britain

 

[Trickythemerc]

Compass stuck on the windscreen

 

[baxlin]

Compass stuck on the windscreen

When I first moved to Coventry many years ago I could never work out where I was on the ring road, as all junctions (bar one) looked alike, and were very close together.

A compass on the windscreen was very helpful - if I knew which direction I was heading, and knowing whether I was going clockwise or anti-clockwise told me which bit I was on!