# Useless Car Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 6, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482 "2003-07-06T01:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/21 "2003-07-07T18:19:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by danceswithcats \* > \*\*Dodge and Plymouth 170 and 225 CID slant six engines were very service friendly. If you were over 5’6", you could pull the starter without going underneath. \*\* Yes, doing the starter (once or twice in the life of the car) was easy (it was on the “top” side), but doing a tune-up (every 10K or so) was a major hassle, because the distributor was on the “bottom” side… Bulletproof engine, though. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/22 "2003-07-07T18:53:07Z")
I love the bumpersticker on a lot of the 2CVs that reads: I THINK YOUR CAR LOOKS FUNNY TOO! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/23 "2003-07-07T19:21:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bad News Baboon \* > The Mini was the first car that had a sideways mounted engine, that supported front wheel drive. I read an interesting article about the Mini once. I can’t remember the exact title, but it said the day the Mini was introduced was the day the British car industry died. The design innovations that made Japanese cars such a success in the 70s were all present on the Mini ten years earlier, and it sold very well, but they had no way to follow that up and take advantage of it. There was no effective dealer or repair network, bad customer service and advertising, no ongoing improvements or development of the design. Their one bit of brilliance only highlighted how bad everything else was. The designer of the Mini, Alec Issigonis, was knighted in 1969. **Coldfire** , I knew someone with a DS once. (Pretty rare in the states.) He was showing off once about how easy it was to change the front brake pads. Open the hood (inboard brakes), pop open a couple of clips, and there’s the pad. It took about five seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/24 "2003-07-07T19:23:49Z")
**Tuckerfan** , believe it or not, a lot of things on some cars you wouldn’t expect are made of balsa wood. I think there’s a term for it, something like “organic engineering”, but I can’t think of it at the moment. Also, balsa is used more often than one would imagine for things like splitters on track cars. Useless car trivia? Hmm. I have a lot of useless trivia in my head about cars, but most of it applies to mechanical intricacies of cars I don’t own. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/25 "2003-07-07T19:31:02Z")
Good god, a bricklin. I hadn’t thought about that car in ages. I’ve been in one. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/26 "2003-07-07T21:34:58Z")
When Carroll Shelby started making his legendary Cobras, he had to go to court to get permission for the name. Cobra had been used to denote the COpper and BRAss sleeved cylinders of of the ill-fated engine that spelled the failure of the Crosley automobile. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482/27 "2003-07-08T09:56:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*Coldy, the original 2CV started with a pull rope like a lawnmower, yes? Didja know that the prototype of the car was built _before_ the war? And that it was hidden in the sewers of Paris as the Nazi’s rolled into France and that it wasn’t found until 1976? (It started on the first try, BTW.) \*\* I don’t think it had a rope: it came with a crank IIRC. But the story about the prototype is way cool! I found two links on the topic, but unfortunately they were in Dutch and Danish. The Danish article [has a picture of the 1938 prototype](http://www.klassiskebiler.dk/museum/indhold/frankrig/citroen/2cv/2cv.htm), though. Cool. As for cars being made out of wood: Morgans have an all wood chassis, too. [Here’s a bunch of them during production.](http://www.morganmania.freeserve.co.uk/factory/factory_10.jpg) The wood can be seen quite clearly! [And here’s the end product.](http://www.morganmania.freeserve.co.uk/photos/peter_morgan.jpg) What a car! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-car-trivia/186482.md?page=1)