The other day I walked past an open door in my office building, one which is usually closed, and an extremely familiar and comforting smell emanated. That of my much missed X-reg FIAT Marea?s interior. That car had a unique smell, nothing like the usual ?new car? smell of most cars? interiors. It is an impossible smell to describe, as I have never smelt anything similar, until now when the magic door wafted open.
I am now going out of my way around the office every day in the hope that it?s open again. I have no idea what the room contains as I didn?t look in as I passed by, but I hope to find out.
Other than that, I must be the only contributor here who does not like the smell of petrol.
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Must be Castrol R, it brings back so many memories.
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I am now going out of my way around the office every day in the hope that it?s open again. I have no idea what the room contains as I didn?t look in as I passed by but I hope to find out.>>
One day the temptation will be too much to bear, and you will walk in, then feel rather foolish because you don't know what to say.
But you will be greeted by "Do come in, Mr Alanovich, we have been expecting you".
Because only you know the smell. Now read on ....
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At the Brooklands museum there is a small workshop, maybe eight foot square, that has been transported from elsewhere and rebuilt in the museum. You can only stick your head through the door to see it but it has a workbench and is full of old tools and spares on shelves.
The oily smell emanating from it bought an instant smile to my face, and I had to keep going back to it for just one more sniff. The smell could have added but I like to think it was just seeping from all the 50 year old articles in there.
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Ah Yes! good one! forgotten that one! The same smell at country railway stations in the 50s and 60s
Wasn't that the wheezing gas lamp, and the coal fire in the waiting room?
Lud: - yes, Stockholm tar used on both sheep (as antiseptic) and ships (as wood preserver). Hence don't spoil the ship/sheep for a ha'porth of tar.
Thanks to Scandinavian use on traditional wooden buildings it has just been granted a reprieve, despite carcinogenic allegations.
Works a treat on athlete's foot, and could be used on the woodwork on shooting brakes, for a motoring relevance.
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The delicious admixture of leather & 'aromatic' cigarette smoke (usually French or Dutch tobacco) in my old XJ6 series 111. The leather never lost its scent & subtly mingled with the tobacco & walnut dash aromas. Probably a few other unmentionables mingling in there too. The whole sensation topped off with a proper well-worn leathery creak when you shuffled about a bit, esp. with your leather jacket on.
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>The delicious admixture of leather & 'aromatic' cigarette smoke..
tinyurl.com/ok8jd4 - Gauloises (or woodbines) at extra cost.
Kevin...
Edited by Kevin on 07/12/2009 at 20:39
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This is kind of related to motoring... Chimney smoke in Leicestershire on a winter's evening - takes me back to the age of about 8 at my grandma's huge thatched cottage in Hertfordshire. You don't smell it back in Herts any more since the smokeless coal zones came in, but evidently those regulations haven't reached Leics yet. (Motoring link - many many miles covered coming up to visit Leics five years ago, many more covered going back to Herts to visit the rellies since!)
Also I vote for the new car smell - again partly for the way it evokes childhood memories.
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I ued to live in a thatched cottage in Manton ( Rutland) and know that smell well.
I still call Tilton on the Hill home despite moving to the Fens 29 yrs ago!
Pat
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New car smells
Taken from Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_car_smell
A 1995 analysis[1] of the air from a new Lincoln Continental found over 50 volatile organic compounds, which were identified as coming from sources such as cleaning and lubricating compounds, paint, carpeting, leather and vinyl treatments, latex glue, and gasoline and exhaust fumes. An analysis two months after the initial one found a significant reduction in the chemicals. The researchers observed that the potential toxicity of many of these compounds could pose a danger to human health.
At one time it was possible to buy an aerosol of new car smell - but have been unable to find a UK one. Maybe 'elf & safety has won out!
Discussed previously
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=803
Bell boy - what do you use?
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Gunk on a hot engine.
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Burnt Redex smoke wasn't bad either.
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Oh yes - happy days they were cleaning bike engines with Gunk, seemed like summer every day......
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"Gunk on a hot engine."
Oh yes, that was certainly a smell that could never be mistaken for anything else !
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Wet tarmac after a hot day and a rain shower.
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Wet tarmac after a hot day and a rain shower.
Brilliant. Agree. Or any hard surface that got rained on quickly after a period of dryness.
Mmmmmm..........MD
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Gunk? you girlies!!
we cleaned our engines and bits with good old 4*
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Favorite smell? well it`s not rotting crabs from deep within the inner panels i can tell you!!
coal smoke has already been mentioned, but i was going to say standing on a (road)bridge as a steam train passed assunder. i wonder if the old steam-powered cars smelt similar?
Oh! and 3 in 1 oil
Edited by billy25 on 07/12/2009 at 17:22
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I still use 3 in 1. Good stuff. Can make your chips taste funny though.
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special nosegay (CO) ... Although colour-less & odour-less, when I was tuning the likes of beetles, porsche, illman imp, nsu prinz, wartburg, some early reno's etc., etc. I had the joys of CO for umpteen years.
The smell came from oil being burnt due to worn valve guides or over-fueling due to carb problems.
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Burnt Redex smoke wasn't bad either.
Lud, you (expletive deleted). I've been trying to cleanse that from my memory for nigh on 20 years, after an experiment in softening and reshaping the piston rings on my first car (Allegro) went horribly wrong....
I heard from a trade-plater once than brand new cars HAD to be driven around/to/from the compounds and the docks with the windows open, as exposure to the gasket materials which burned off when they first got hot(?) were carcinogenic in the long term.
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after an experiment in softening and reshaping the piston rings on my first car (Allegro) went horribly wrong....
I forgive you Dave. Sounds intriguing.
Take some serious opium-based painkiller and tell us more.
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My two best smells in no particular order.
2 Stroke preferably from a 60's - 70's Trials bike. i.e. localised and just pootling around.
The smell of Cows, preferably a Dairy herd, muck and all. Well milk goes in tankers. (Motoring link)
At last, a decent post!!!!!
MD. (Still wet in Devon)
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Hot road tar has a certain something.
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"Hot road tar has a certain something."
ISTR when I was young that open roadworks (e.g. when the pavement was being dug up) was really stinky - not noticed this for years. Maybe there was a cracked sewer in my vicinity...
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Slightly motoring...summer evening honeysuckle growing from next door across the front of my garage.....alas, no longer. My philistine neighbour removed any trace of green from his back garden and ' pebbled ' the lot.
I love the smell of wood and coal smoke too. Although in a smokeless zone, there are neighbours who ignore it, thank the lord.
I visit a friend in Much Wenlock several times a year, the winter visits are good as a pall of smoke hangs over the town....lovely.
Ted
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The smell of a new car. I also liked the smell of the qualifying fuel we used in the '88 season.Smelt great to me, but gave people nose bleeds!.
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