Car fittings (a bit OT)

Maybe it took a long time for them to not be regarded as an accessory? ISTR that Lucas stuff was not particularly reliable :-) - perhaps car manufacturers felt that they would not be able to make a product that wasn't actually even worse?

Much more likely that the car "designers" were told to buy "off the shelf" items. Specials would be more expensive. Reliability: My 1971 Cortina had a headlamp relay (a Lucas part) fail quite early in the cars' life.. So that I could get home safely on the next night, I repaired it but bought a spare which turned out to be Bosch. The spare stayed in my garage until I sold the car some 10 years later!

These days they all have the same gearboxes and engine management systems, instead..

And buy tyres from places like Pirelli and Michelin.

I remember even big companies like GEC didn't make their own transistors then either.

You fail to understand the modern world. The only thing companies design is brand differentiation styling.

This year lights are part of that.

"Lucas - Prince of Darkness"

I had fun relaying the whole Lucas unreliability saga to a friend recently; she is too young to know.

Her headlamps had failed completely.

Her surname is Lucas.

The crappist alternators ever fitted to FIATs (who also used Marelli and Bosch).

The ultimate turkey FIAT was fitted with a Lucas alternator, and a Solex carb. Weber carbs rocked.

And chassis too ...

I used to have a 1960s Lucas accessories catalogue. It covered a huge range of electrical parts. However, there were plenty of cars with specially designed lights - the Y shaped Ford Cortina rear light cluster and the Triumph Herald rear lights integrated into the overrider/rear fin come to mind.

GEC made transistors in the 60s. Hazel Mill.

More likely the problem was in quality control as the demand for any old ta t under British management was out of control in the sixties and early seve nties. Then planned obsolescence turned and bit most British engineering sh eds. Even Rolls Royce was hit mainly due to Japanese imports (but they were using frozen chickens to test jet engine blades at the time so that didn't help. :~)

It would be interesting to compare specs and prices for Japanese cars vss B ritish and European made ones from those days. Anyone got some old mags in the shed?

There is a very old Jeremy Clarkson video called 'Who Killed The British Car Industry', which is quite amusing. It might be on YouTube (if you're in the 50% who like him, and if you have a spare half-hour, that is).

The story of Japanese vs. British bikes is well-known. I've never been much interested in car history, but I wouldn't be suprised if there was a similar tale to tell.

I think my series 2 Morgan was around ?550 in 1956. No, I didn't buy it new. Still on the road, somewhere around Ipswich according to the DVLA.

d tat under British management was out of control in the sixties and early seventies. Then planned obsolescence turned and bit most British engineerin g sheds. Even Rolls Royce was hit mainly due to Japanese imports (but they were using frozen chickens to test jet engine blades at the time so that di dn't help. :~)

ss British and European made ones from those days. Anyone got some old mags in the shed?

Very similar except that Japanese electrics were over complex and tended to fail in their own version of planned obsolescence. Japanese factories made crankcases that were better matched and tighter fitter with air tools (fai rly novel in the late 60's.) All British bikes were going abroad at the tim e as the country was bent on getting dollars in to pay for nuclear reactors , as the empire crumpled.

Even as late as the 1980's British cars had an oil leak problem. Eventually Leyland partnered with Honda (IIRC) to develop an engine for the Montego/M aestro?

Meanwhile British bikes vibrant as ever leaked their way to the back of the garage every winter, as usual. Management had still not learned that a lit tle bit of rubbish goes a very long way -especially with a better engine. O nce Yokohama rubbers were improved and tuned two strokes replaced the Franc is Barnetts the buying public was phased out with the occasional chopped Tr ibsa/Triton parked in hedges while their owners walked to the nearest parts supplier looking for Lucas plug caps/HT leads.

More likely a small volume maker like Aston couldn't afford to have special fittings made.

But yes, some makes did share fittings. And switchgear.

Remember too that many cars pre about 1950 will have been converted to twin tail lights using standard Lucas bits.

Bit of an urban myth which originated in the US. They were no less reliable than other similar foreign makers - and better than some. But of course had a near monopoly of UK cars. Rolls Royce used them to make their electrics too. So more of a case of Lucas making products to the standard the makers were willing to pay for.

You hear the same sort of attitude in the US etc to 'Chinese junk'. As if there was a US maker with competitive prices that was better.

Don't think so. BL did buy in some Honda engines, though. Including the rubbish V6 they replaced the Rover V8 with on the 800. ;-)

It was pretty well a one way collaboration, design wise, and more to do with shared platforms. But BL did build some bodies for Honda.

The "new Anglia" and the Mini used the same starter motor. Replacements were cheaper from a Ford dealer than from a BL one.

well we never used any of em when I worked for em in the early 70s'

Was that an intentional pun (of sorts) or did you mean vibrating? :-)

I don't know much about the cars, but the electrics on my old british bikes were pretty awful. There didn't seem to have been any attempt to make them waterproof at all. I was reluctantly jealous of my traitor friends who had japanese bikes :-)