VW automatic parking brake. etc

[Bob Eager]

What I really liked on the Hawk was the 'overdrive' on top gear - flick a switch on the steering column, no use of clutch needed.

[NY]

Maybe because when seat belts first came in, they were only fixed-length ones attached to anchoring points on the B pillars or floor, and making a suitable anchorage on a bench seat (and a seat that was strong enough to take it) was too difficult. And maybe another reason was the need to allow the driving seat to be moved backwards and forwards and to alter its angle of backrest, in the interests of improved ergonomics, which was much more difficult with a bench. It must have been *very* cramped with people across the width of the car, rubbing shoulders and the driver clouting the person on his left as he swung the column gear lever up and down and in and out.

Ah but modern cars like the Honda Civic and CR-V, and some vans, have the dashboard gear lever moving more like a floor-mounted lever: it moves forwards and backwards (although about a slightly inclined plane rather than a horizontal one) and left and right, rather than being a rotation and in/out action. Very easy to use.

That must have required a lot of extra space between the steering wheel and the door to accommodate the floor-mounted gear lever. It's like with the Hillman Hunter and its RH handbrake: maybe the seats were closer together (no need for handbrake in centre) which allowed enough space for handbrake (and your fist to operate it) between seat and door.

The Wolseley version of the "Landcrab" 1800 had its automatic transmission selector as a knob that slid up and down out of a notched vertical slot on the right hand side of the dashboard. Not sure about the automatic Austin/Morris versions - maybe they had a vertical selector lever (more like a manual gearlever) in the footwell between the seats.

[NY]

Ah, was the Renault 4 3-speed? My mum had a Renault 6 which had a four-speed box but still the same hockey-stick lever coming out of the dashboard as on the Renault 4 and Citroeen 2CV. Now that really *was* a Heath Robinson linkage - very prone to coming unlatched where the over-the-engine rod meshed with the vertical rod coming out of the gearbox which was mounted in front of the longitudinal engine and behind the radiator.

On a four-speed, it's always better if reverse is next to second rather than first as you can alternate between the two slightly faster - as long as the gearbox allows you to engage reverse while the car is still going forwards and first while still going backwards (as long as you don't let the clutch up). VW, Renault, Citroen and Peugeot gearboxes do (so I got into bad habits); Honda ones definitely don't and will protest very loudly if the wheels have not come to a complete halt ;-) Been there, done that: the joys of switching between driving my Peugeot and my wife's Honda.

[NY]

Was there some technical reason why they achieved the extra gears using a piggy-backed second gearbox rather than (as now) adding additional ratios to the main gearbox?

Austin had 5 speeds on the Maxi (1970 IIRC) long before Hillman stopped making the Hunter with 4-speed and overdrive and Triumph had OD on the Dolomite, Stag etc (well into the 1970s).

[Chris J Dixon]

Chris

[Mike Barnes]

[Bob Eager]

It was done with an epicyclic gear, where the inptu and output shafts were locked together by a spring loaded clutch. When you operated the switch, a hydraulic pump filled two small cylinders that forced the plates apart, thereby smoothly changing to the 'higher' gear. No clutch, and probably a bit simpler. A joy to use.

[News]

I had a Sceptre for a while, the earlier Mk I, and that had the same overdrive. I really liked that car.

World's Most Boring Car? Morris Marina.

[News]

In message , Muddymike writes

Gottit!

Which, of course, made me fire up YouTube.

Which took me to UK cars of the 50s and 60s :

(You'll need full screen, and speakers on)

That took me to Joanna Lumley in a Nimble advert. You can find that yourself :-)

[Bob Eager]

I had one of those too, a real rustbucket. Not long after I started work; all I could afford.

[Tim Watts]

Yes they did - but talk not of the evil cable-shift linkage!!!

(Mine had a rod linkage and worked fine, but it was a late model, very late in fact).

[Tim+]

I have a problem. In my head I hear "Bom bom bom bom. Esso Blue! Made to make your mouth water."

I might be confused.

Tim

[Tim Streater]

I think the jingle as played in the later ads made it clearer. Not quite sure why paraffin would make your mouth water, though.

[Bob Eager]

As he said, he's confused. The last part is from the Opal Fruits advert...

[damduck-egg]

Having driven a large van for work for many years I have got used to using wing/door mirrors rather than an interior one and still use them out of habit , as it happens the other half wanted her Mini to be the Clubman version and the interior mirror gives a good view of the rear doors where they come together and not much else. I have been tempted to remove the mirror as I don't use it but the other half won't let me.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

One of the few knocks I have had was doing that . Normally I was quite happy reversing using Mirrors and view from inside. On this occasion I happened to have a rear axle and diff assembly poking out at an angle from the boot of my Riley 1.5 as it had eaten a half shaft a while before . Having obtained previously the assembly from a scrappy I was taking the unused bits back and concerned that the axle sticking out was going to be a close pass to a car belonging to a fellow inmate of the digs. I opened the door to look, axle passed just fine with inches to spare. Unfortunately I forgot to close the door which didn't.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

Mothers Morris Minor 1000 first registered in the Brighton area in

1956 had 3 point seat belts fitted when she got it in 1962, They were made by Britax and the buckles were chunky affairs not unlike what you find on an aircraft belt with a BSI kite Mark prominently displayed on the metal.

They were fixed which meant adjusting them for another person was a bit of a palaver, never the less they got me into the seatbelt wearing habit at a young age so when it became law I never had to adjust to it like many.

I always wondered if the car had them from new but a quick google shows Britax introduced them in 1960.

The previous owner must have been on the ball to fit them but a long buried memory is suggesting she was a nurse or similar so may have been familiar with the results of crashes.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

And everyone will know Because you told the blabbering trees

Sodding Earworms.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

I once had control of access to a car park that the actual owners preferred to have closed off after about 6pm. But even after I put the chain across there was a gap between a bollard and a railing that driven carefully you could get something like a Transit through. Useful as anyone "trapped" could escape. At the time I was driving White Vauxhall Astra which easily passed through so one evening I put the chain up had a cuppa and went out again driving through the gap noticing as I did so the Driver of a car in the park watching me while stuffing a Pizza into his gob, His car happened to be a Red Astra. I returned about an hour later to be confronted by this disgruntled chap who complained bitterly that I had locked* him in. As he had watched me drive in an out I forcefully shut him up by asking if Red Astras were wider than white ones. He then meekly said he couldn't drive through such a gap. I dropped the chain and let him out.

• And if he had got off his fat arse and actually looked he would have found the chain was only on a hook and not locked at all. It was only really a visible deterent.

G.Harman

[The Natural Philosopher]

Vauxhall Victor/Bedford CA van. My first vehicle