.......bonnet-mounted fly deflectors?
.......front windscreen canopies?
.......wheelarch "spats"?
.......bench front seats?
.......column-mounted gear change?
.......handbrake levers between the driver's seat and the door?
.......etc?
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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.......handbrake levers between the driver's seat and the door?
Got one of those in my Citroen C8 and had one on its predecessor, the Synergie.
Used to regularly clip the button on the chrome handbake lever of my Jag 3.4 S-type and release it. Fortunately it was usually left in "park".
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Doesn't the Jag XK8 have a handbrake between the seat and door?
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We used to have a 1947 Austin 8 with several unusual features, including a windscreen that could be fully opened upwards (excellent demisting!), a foot mounted headlights dip control and a rear window blind (operated by pulling on a ring attached to a piece of string running over the offside doors) to save the driver being blinded by a following vehicle.
Mind you the headlights were so dim in those days that it was rarely used.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"a rear window blind (operated by pulling on a ring attached to a piece of string running over the offside doors) to save the driver being blinded by a following vehicle."
I had one of those on an old Austin (can't remember the model), put silver foil on mine to reinforce the anti-dazzle message.
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>>a foot mounted headlights dip control
My mini had one of those, as well as a foot operated windscreen wsher pump (and I do mean "pump").
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My old Singer Chamois (better fitted out Hillman Imp) had a rubber button that you pushed in to squeeze water through the washer jets.
I can also remember one of my Father's cars having a lever operated overdrive (pobably an Austin Westminster) and a Triumph 2500 PI (petrol injection) having a switch for overdrive on the top of the gear lever.
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a foot mounted headlights dip control
Still got one on the Commer, confuses the apprentice in the vehicle at MOT time when the tester asks him to switch to main beam.
Also got the handbrake between the seat and the driver's door I guess this wasn't an issue when we had a British car industry and cars were built here to be used here with the steering wheel on the proper side and left hand drive production wasn't a consideration.
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and left hand drive production wasn't a consideration.>>
My understanding is that most British car production at this time went abroad...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Sorry, failed attempt at humour.
I expect the real reason was that with a bench seat and the engine directly under the middle of the bench seat there wasn't a good alternative place to put the handbrake apart from making it one of those wonderful "umbrella" under dash jobs that also seem to have disappeared.
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.... just thinking about the overdrive button on top of the gear selector that someone mentioned before.... I thought to myself, where the hell have I seen that before .... and I remembered..... on my dads old (late 80s?) Ford Transit 2.9 Petrol Automatic!!!!
Whatever happened to V6 petrol transit vans .... and automatics in them as well :) he he he
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And...
......opening front quarterlights
......chrome horn push rings
......white wall tyres
......crossply tyres (my trailer's got 'em!)
......decoking
......bumper over-riders
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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>>Whatever happened to V6 petrol transit vans .... and automatics in them as well :) he he he
The same fate as most other old transits, I should think!!!
LDV (or was it Freight Rover at that time?), did a 3.5 Rover V8 option in their larger, wider van. Some got used by emergency services.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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I hope this is interesting if not entirely relevent. The car in which I learnt to drive was a Wolseley 12HP, it too had opening windscreen as well as a 7 day wind up clock but its crowning glory was the Jackall system. Open a small trapdoor in the passenger footwell and a semi-rotary pump could be operated to jack up the front or rear wheels, or all four. Marvellous. I took my test in Edinburgh in a 1936 Singer 9HP with chain driven OHC. Although I passed I was given a ticking off for being too timid in ploughing through the passengers hopping on and off the trams, how things change.
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Re foot operated washer pump
My 1973 Escort automatic had one as well...it wasnt the washer jets that froze first but the rubber foot bulb. It also had a metal ring surrounding the bulb that operated a switch for the flick wipe.
StarGazer
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What about rear view mirrors, about 8 of them stretched from passenger side to drivers side!
Or thos things you put on your wipers to catch the wind and make them push better onto the screen!
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choke knobs
Motorola radios
grease nipples
plugs you could see when you opened the bonnet. Make that engines you could see when you opened the bonnet
picnic tables
parking in the centre of town without paying
Benny Santini. Sorry. Couldn't resist that last one. One for Chris Rea fans.
John
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I could never see what was wrong with the column gearchange. My first car (14-year-old Austin A50) had one, and it was a far better change than those on the MG 1300 and two Maxis that followed it. I should have had a Renault 16, which was I think the last production car to have one.
I think it's the movement of the hand that made the difference - perhaps this is why SWMBO and I both like the dash-mounted gear lever on her Honda Civic type S. Sadly I've never tried a Citroen Traction Avant with that wonderful curved lever sprouting from mid-dashboard. Have any of our Citroen fans driven one?
Front quarterlights were great too - open them a little in winter or wet weather for demisting, and wide open in summer to give a far better blast of fresh air than anything a vent can do.
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We posted at the same time RF - totally agree with you about ammeters. I suppose alternators are more reliable than dynamos, and belts don't slacken as they used to - but it would still be useful to know that all was well.
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- those stupid trailing things that were supposed to help car sickness by getting rid of static electricity
- large stickers saying '0-60 in 15 minutes'/ 'my other car is a porsche' etc ad nauseam
- rows of metal badges screwed to the front bumper
- cb radio
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Eight track stereos. Would crash if not defragmented regularly by playing a James Last tape.
As for those foot mounted dip switches, my Reliant had one. What a mess a then inexperienced young blade could get into if an oncomming car appeared during a gear change on the ponderous Reliant box.
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Foot Mounted dip switches,
Yes they were a feature on my 68 Morris Oxford (like the Austin Cambridge, only better! ;) ).
That car also sported a button on the starter solenoid that could be pressed to start the car if the ignition was on. Brilliand idea for servicing or timing etc.
The car also had
Starter handle, My sister's friend from the former USSR was very impressed by this alone.
Crossply tyres
Front and rear quarterlights
Sealed beam units
Bench seat
A light on the drivers side central door pillar that you could switch on individually. Great for getting out of the car in the dark and for safety.
...and more!
H
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Centre throttle pedal (ideal for heel and toe)?
Fly-off hand brake, on the right along with the gear lever, for quick starts?
Clutch brake, or stop, for lightning changes?
Ki-gass pump to get started any time?
Magneto ignition and starting handle, so it was not worth the battery's while to go flat?
Knock off hubs for quick wheel changes?
Large but relatively narrow wheels to get along smartly in all weathers?
And motor-cycling without a space suit?
Etc and...
No synchro-mesh boxes and other measures to dispense with such goodies, so not enough idiots could get on the road to make worth while all the venomous atrocities now committed to take all fun out of driving?
Dammit!
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Vacuum wipers!!!! Oh! Joy!
Clive.
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While I think of it......Smiths heaters. It was an "extra" I remember it had two doors on the front. Mine was fitted to a Commer Cob. No syncromesh, no probs!! I was taught to double de-clutch UP and Down the box!! I seem to recall switching the lights on and getting out to see if they were on!!
Clive.
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