I'll forget these if I don't put them here, having just read them in a library book. I hadn't heard them before.
Citroen: in the thirties, Andre Citroen saw a millwright making gears with a strange herringbone pattern. The gears ran very smoothly and quietly. He bought the patent, and applied it to his car gears.
To this day, the Citroen logo represents that herringbone gear.
Peugeot: in the twenties, Peugeot brought out a new model they were to call the 21. When the metal numbers were applied to the front of the car, the hole for the starting handle sat in the middle, so it looked like 201. They went with 201 and then stuck with that nomenclature. When much later Porsche were going to call their new car the 901, Peugeot objected and so Porsche renamed it the 911.
I hope these are true. They were in a brilliant book about the development of the Merlin engine, with many highways and byways of engineering and intriguing characters too.
It's called Merlin, by Graham Hoyland, if anyone is interested.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 8 Oct 20 at 15:13
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>>When much later Porsche were going to call their new car the 901, Peugeot objected and so
>>Porsche renamed it the 911.
>>
>>I hope these are true
Apparently Porsche originally called their cars 9-- because they were trying to align their project numbers with VW and the 900 series was available.
The 904 (became the Carrera GTS) and 906 ( became the Carrera 6) were also renamed due to the same dispute.
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Here's another bit of car badge trivia
Sir Falkes de Bréauté was a soldier in the pay Of King John. He built a large house in London for hisi wife know as Falkes Hall. That area of London later became know as Vauxhall after which the car company was named. The Griffin badge use by the Vauxhall car company, originally a marine engineering firm in the area was the emblem of Sir Falkes de Bréauté.
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Nothing to do with the car, but I'd often idly wondered where Vauxhall the area came from.
Every day a school day, cheers.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 8 Oct 20 at 18:59
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Merlin is literally on my bedside table, waiting to be read ! ( yes literally !)
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Merlin about the wizard, engine, aircraft or something else?
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>> Merlin is literally on my bedside table, waiting to be read !
Hope you enjoy it. It's good fun with some techy bits interspersed with a good narrative. Be surprised if you don't learn at least something along the way, though not necessarily about the engine.
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So many books, so little time...! Thanks to this post will be reading this next.
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>> Merlin is literally on my bedside table, waiting to be read ! ( yes literally
>> !)
Mine's in the post.
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There are literally hundreds of similar facts in the correctly-titled A Medium Sized Book Of Boring Car Trivia by Richard Porter. Hours of fun, and a foreword by James May, which tells you all you need to know.
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South London Vauxhall includes the Vauxhall Gardens park. The latter was once a public entertainment and red light area but became respectable in the mid-19C. Vauxhall is now very popular with gays for some reason. The car brand carries a rather sedate image for me and I would be interested to know why it was selected.
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The Royal Vauxhall Tavern public house was built on part of Vauxhall Gardens in the late 19th century, and at some point after WW1 started to put on drag shows. Always popular with returning servicemen, and increasingly attracted gay men. Local at first, though as word spread about the servicemen... ;) It became a huge gay venue in the ‘80s/‘90s, possibly earlier...I’’m not sure. Paul O’Grady (Lilly Savage) performed there for the best part of 10 years I think.
So I imagine that’s how the attraction of the area started, at a time when safe spaces were more important than they are today. In most respects its good that dedicated gay pubs/bars are not needed as much; on the other hand though the increasing homogenisation of bars, restaurants, shops etc does make life a little duller.
If you mean the cars, I’m not sure they’ve ever had any more popularity with gay men or women than the average age car...possibly quite the opposite ;)
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>> though as word spread about the servicemen... ;)
That made me smile.
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Well let's be honest you need to be a bit queer to like Vauxhalls.
As for the place, South of the River, Vauxhall, Southwark etc was in Shakespeare time anyway the place where London debauched, Bear pits, cock fights, prostitutes, bawdy taverns, and of course a favourite place for ole will to put up his theatres
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My main drinking buddy, who is probably the gayest man in South America, would have no idea what make of car I drive, despite having been in it a gazillion times. I've no doubt he knows what colour it is, and probably has opinions about the colour of the interior, but I would bet a substantial amount of money he has no idea what make it is.
His husband, however, could rip the engine apart blindfolded, but I still don't think he'd care about one brand more than any other.
And most certainly not Vauxhall.
However, aren't Isuzu and Vauxhall affiliated? And doesn't Isuzu sponsor Welsh Rugby? So you never know.
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>> Well let's be honest you need to be a bit queer to like Vauxhalls.
Oi! Anymore of that duckie, and I'll slap you with my handbag ;)
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Duckie also a huge club night at the Vauxhall Tavern from the 90’s until, AFAIK, now (COVID excepted...) :p
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In the early '80s the Holiday Inn near Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town used to have drag shows on at weekends. Being openly gay in South Africa at that time was, I suspect, pretty damn dangerous.
We were there one weekend and the act was going down a storm except for one guy at a table with a bunch of other japies in uniform who kept heckling. The act ignored him for about five minutes then stopped, turned towards the guy and came out with one of the best putdowns I've ever heard.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the only virgin in the room. A perfect C^&*"
Funnily enough the heckling stopped.
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Bits of car trivia - No FM2R
