hi All,
just come across this!
tinyurl.com/6msmfw
if this isn't the "ultimate" snob gadget, in your opinion what is?
Billy
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IMO this would only really be 'Snob' if you employed a butler or chauffeur to work it for you! By itself it is just practical/useful.
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That's a superb device. As I've said on here before, my father was knocked off his motorbike and killed by someone reversing out of a driveway. If I had a driveway, I'd really consider getting one of these for safety reasons.
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They're not exactly the novelty you'd think. I used to deliver to a place in Nottingham city centre, which had one in the basement garage.
Neat idea though.
Edited by Harleyman on 28/10/2008 at 16:47
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No, to be a true snob you need to have a big enough drive not to need one!
I like it though.
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If I had a driveway I'd really consider getting one of these for safety reasons.
I have a driveway and for safety reasons I reverse into it. The turntable would only be of use to me if I had such a long and narrow driveway that it was too far to reverse easily, or if I wanted to amuse myself by having my car spinning away outside my house.
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I have a driveway and for safety reasons I reverse into it.
Reversing in is definately the best thing to do - I always do when using a driveway. I guess it would depend on how busy the road were, were I to live in a house with a driveway. If a cul-de-sac, then yes, no point getting one. If I lived on a major, or very busy road, I'd rather have a turntable than have to position myself across perhaps several lanes of fast moving traffic to reverse in. Maybe this is who the device is really aimed at, I can think of many, many roads in London where it would be very useful, e.g. the North Circular around Ealing.
Being a resident of the overpopulated Home Counties and West London most of my life I can see the benefits, of course up north where cars and footwear are more scarce they probably don't make much sense.
Perhaps my mind is slightly more focussed on the dangers of driveways due to personal circumstance, but apologies for for not explaining my position fully first time, occasionally work gets in the way.
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Maybe "snob" isn't the "right" word, it was easier than typing "is this the ultimate keeping one-step ahead of the Jones's gotta- have" though ;-)
but seeing as i've ended up typing it now, please feel free to relace "snob" as and where you like! ;-)
billy
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I have used similar ones but for trucks before. Waitrose use them at some of their stores, the two I have used were in London one was Marlybone high street, restricted for space and could only use a 30ft trailer on it. Somewhere else in London they had one that took a 45ft trailer. Much easier and better then having to try and do a difficult reverse, not to mention safer!
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>If I had a driveway, I'd really consider getting one of these...
I have one and I reverse into it, as does Mrs dB. Why is this perceived as so hard to do?
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I can see the benefits in a "commercial" environment, but it's "very-posh!" to have one in your garage or on your drive though! - just imagine a Breakfast scenario, "I've reversed the Fiesta onto the turntable for you dear" or, after spending Sunday morning washing it, "spin it faster dear! it's almost dry now!" ;=)
Billy
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I had never heard of these but I'm mildly surprised that we haven't seen them utilised on the local council estate yet to display life sized illuminated reindeer and so on.......
Crikey, just thought....they'll be sparking those up soon won't they ?
:-(
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Actually I've decided I'd quite like one if only to confuse the spit out of that parsimonious woman on my sat nav.......
"Turn left,..... turn right..... left.............turn around when possible...go straight on..."
Not so clever now are we........
;-)
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Ah! but on a council estate they would be powered by either the "Hampster in his wheel" or the "communal" lamp-post.
Billy
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On a similar note. We did some work on a house in Sheffield where the client had a hydraulic car lift installed in a new double garage, so he could lift one car up out of the way and still have room to park two cars on the garage floor.
A bit 'Tracey Island', but if you've got 3 or more cars, why not?
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Wouldn't a proper snob want a nice circle of impeccably raked gravel with a nice round lawn in the middle of it at the end of a longish approach road? I would anyway.
The thing might come in useful in my four-car underground garage though.
:o}
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>>impeccably raked gravel with a nice round lawn in the middle <<
Not content with a mere Turntable are we Lud? - you want your own mini-roundabout!! ;-)
Billy
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your own mini-roundabout!! ;-)
I was thinking of something more the size of a motorway roundabout actually. Mini-roundabouts are those things you have to drive over as often as not...
:o}
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Quite so Lud,, and a tailcoated family retainer to open your car door for you and address you as "Young Master ....... how very good to see you back at McLoadeds Castle, Mr Bountiful the solicitor has been very worried that he didn't know where to send all the cheques"..........
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My late uncle built one of these to his own design in the front garden of a very 'umble terraced house back in the 60's as getting in and out was very tight.
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"Wouldn't a proper snob want a nice circle of impeccably raked gravel with a nice round lawn in the middle of it at the end of a longish approach road?"
One has a birch tree inside a Polo mint of gravel. Fine until someone stops/parks on it, and then everyone else has to reverse in or out. So I built a yard out the back, with non-blocking parking for at least six cars and the horse lorry. Reckoned with three daughters it'd get quite busy, and I've been proved right!
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Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "just taking the car for a spin " :-)
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Isn't there a turntable in the Jack Barclay Rolls Royce showroom in Berkeley Square, Mayfair?
Think it might also operate as a lift to the basement garage.
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Nothing new under t' sun.
A Victorian semi round the corner from me had one at least 40 yrs ago to my knowledge It has a difficult but short drive down the side of the house. It's been student flats for years now and I think the turntable is still there but pretty rotten. No car can get to the back yard now due to the 25 wheely bins !
Ted
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Have a look at this:
tinyurl.com/6qmcm5
at the RHS show at Hampton Court. As you can imagine, the "garage" descends leaving the pebbled garden above.
If this isn't the ultimate "snob" gadget, it'll do until one comes along.
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Such vehicle turntables have been available for quite some time - probably the idea came from those used by the railways to turn locomotives through 180 degrees.
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I've been itching to mention wagon turntables, but had been reluctant to thread drift again ;-)
However now Stuarli has mentioned railways..
These were about 9' or 10' diameter (the wheelbase of the old 4 wheeled wagons) and used to shoehorn wagons into otherwise inaccessible loading/unloading spots. I know of a station where the goods shed was built at right-angles to the track for some reason, this was only accessible via such a turntable.
Obviously this arrangement precluded shunting by locomotive, these turntables were too short and lightly constructed, the wagons were pushed by hand or towed by horse if you were lucky enough to have one.
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these cant be that common otherwise insurance application forms would read:
where do you park your vehicle
a. on the street
b. in a garage
c. buried underground
c would get you at least a 50% discount :-)
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Very useful. I'd have one if I could afford it. As it is I use the turning area (if that's the right name for it) at the edge of the drive. At least I don't have to either reverse in or out.
Edited by L'escargot on 29/10/2008 at 07:06
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Now available as a no-cost accessory for owners of cars emanating from a certain Bavarian manufacturer.
The idea being I sit in my car and wait; it's just a matter of time. Seeing as how the world revolves around me...
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In the good old days, trams could be driven in either direction just by changing the position of the driver and the direction of the seats. Cars could have that versatility if the manufacturers put their mind to it.
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Cars could have that versatility if the manufacturers put their mind to it.
IMO Porsche Boxsters look the same from the front and back so wouldn't even look unusual doing so ;-).
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Cars could have that versatility if the manufacturers put their mind to it.
Why limit them to forward and back, pushme-pullyu style?
Have these manufacturers never heard of casters, and swivelling driving position turrets, like the Oerlikon guns that used to be dotted around the superstructure of warships?
Total freedom in all directions, now!
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The Oerlikon company, subsequently Oerlikon-Buhrle, diversified quite a bit in the latter half of the 20th century. One of its more unusual aquisitions was the Bally shoe company of Switzerland. It sold it again after a few years.
Funny old world really.
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