Some Automotive Fun...

T. A. Gardner said:
Question:

On Australian cars do the bolts tighten to the left and loosen to the right?
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Only underneath the cyclonic swirl toilets

Poor Dorothy better hope she doesn’t get caught in twisters there…because they send her from Oz to that hellhole Kansas.

I lied.

She’d wake up in Alabama….

Cannon's car... squashed

Birotary
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/28/the-birotary-engine-explained/https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-energy-loss-peaks-rotor-driven.html
 
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Columbia's Cartagena historical centre would trade horse carts for electric buggies for touristic tours:

The new vehicles have big wheels and open tops, just like the traditional buggies. But they are powered by large batteries that can last for about 70km (43 miles) on a single charge.

Instead of reins, there's a steering wheel at the front for the driver. The new carts also come with speakers that could be used to play music, or to replicate the sound of a horse's gallop.
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https://www.npr.org/2025/12/21/nx-s1-5648546/cartagena-horses-colombia-animal-welfare
Now America can truly thanks Conquistadors for not using farting cows as their principal mean of locomotion in their rampage.
 
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Imagine how much of a pos you have to be to spend money researching new ways to screw your customers!

"A disadvantage referring to the previous ones (common screw types) is
that such drive structures frequently occur in a way that screw connection
produced with corresponding screws can be released or tightened in a simple
manner by persons. Period. In other words, it's too easy. These screws make
it too easy for people for people.

The next sentence, however, there are applications of screw connections in
which only one restricted group of people is to be made possible. The screw
connection is to be manipulated or a screw connection is be released or
produced. But again the key here is there are applications of screw
connections in which only one restricted group of people is to be made possible."

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gScfhVXCoLs
 
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I actually would have been thankful as a lad.

I paid my parents $100 bucks a month for a thousand dollar junker that I managed to keep running for years.

A fleet car…no radio. And I loved it ;)

It was a Ford of course, with the mystery electrical problems (decades ago). Not an electrical car mind you.

I dare another mechanic to tell me “we got to catch it when it’s doing it” one more time…
 
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/satire/us-request-five-year-car-history-foreign-tourists
Here’s TopGear.com’s roving correspondent, Cory Spondent, with his mostly incorrect exclusives from the world of motoring
Anyone intending to visit the United States of America will have to disclose their car history for the last five years, according to reports.

Foreign nationals wishing to enter the US will also have to submit details of any motoring accessories purchased in the last three years.
As a result, immigration officials will have a right to refuse entry to tourists deemed to have made ‘unsound automotive decisions’.

“Our prime responsibility is to ensure America continues to attract the very best tourists in the world,” a source said, “not someone who ever thought an S-Type was a good-looking or even remotely desirable Jaguar.

“Landwind X6? Don’t make us laugh. First-generation Nissan Juke? Sorry, try Canada. Mitsubishi Mirage? Denied.

“Also, a Nürburgring sticker on the back of a Mk2 Metro will trigger an automatic denial of entry, as would anyone with a history of having ever purchased furry dice or boxing gloves to hang from the rear-view mirror.

“And don’t get us started on those weird nodding heads.

“Special dispensation will be given to owners of old Alfa Romeos and TVRs. These brave individuals who have dealt with untold mechanical heartache and financial pain in order to run an old SZ or Cerbera are the kinds of citizens welcome in the United States.

“And also, anyone from Japan, too. We do not fully understand kei cars, but the USA would not function as a society without VTEC or boosted six-pots,” the source added.

When pushed on the reliability and notoriety of a host of American-made cars, a source said: “You've got the look of someone who once bought a Maserati Biturbo. DENIED.”
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publiusr said:
I actually would have been thankful as a lad.

I paid my parents $100 bucks a month for a thousand dollar junker that I managed to keep running for years.

A fleet car…no radio. And I loved it ;)

It was a Ford of course, with the mystery electrical problems (decades ago). Not an electrical car mind you.

I dare another mechanic to tell me “we got to catch it when it’s doing it” one more time…
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Publiusr -

Howdy !

Once, while serving as an Electrician working on Air National Guard F-4s,
I went sent to debrief to hear the pilot describe a caution light that only illuminated when he was pulling -1 negative Gs…. that was the only time /way the discrepancy caution light came on.

Try troubleshooting THAT one !!

I did, and was successful in determining a fix !!

So no… you don’t always “… have to catch it when it’s doing it “.


With regards,
357Mag
 
Drongo (Aust.): meaning (A fool, an idiot, a stupid lass)

A woman accused of driving at over three times the legal alcohol limit has allegedly crashed into a fire hydrant and a fence in Melbourne overnight.

Police were called to the scene on Faulkner Street in Blackburn South at about 1.10am.

The driver, a 44-year-old woman, underwent a breath test and allegedly returned a reading of .178.
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Alleged drink driver crashes into fire hydrant in Melbourne
 
Drongo (Aust.): meaning (A fool, an idiot, a stupid fellow)

A drink driver has crashed into the living room of a house in Melbourne's outer west.

Emergency services were called to Dunvegan Road in Kurunjang about 10.40pm on Sunday after reports a car had crashed into the premises.

The car stopped in the living room of the house but nobody was home at the time.

Victoria Police said the 24-year-old male driver returned a positive reading in a preliminary breath test at the scene.
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Drink driver crashes car into the living room of a house in Melbourne's outer west
 
Drongo (Aust.): meaning (A fool, an idiot, a stupid fellow)

Two young men are in hospital after a stolen car they were travelling in rolled and hit a power pole after a police check in Melbourne's north.

A Toyota Corolla with fake number plates was driving along West Street in Hadfield around 4am today when officers spotted the car and tried to pull the driver over, police allege.

When the officers pulled up behind the Corolla to conduct further checks, police claim the driver sped off.
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Two men injured after stolen car ploughs into power pole following traffic stop
 

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You may be right, although it's quite difficult to tell with this one.

AI image generation just keeps getting better and better. It's already becoming a problem, a few more years of this and it'll be difficult to say what's real and what isn't.
 

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Richard N said:
Imagine how much of a pos you have to be to spend money researching new ways to screw your customers!

"A disadvantage referring to the previous ones (common screw types) is
that such drive structures frequently occur in a way that screw connection
produced with corresponding screws can be released or tightened in a simple
manner by persons. Period. In other words, it's too easy. These screws make
it too easy for people for people.

The next sentence, however, there are applications of screw connections in
which only one restricted group of people is to be made possible. The screw
connection is to be manipulated or a screw connection is be released or
produced. But again the key here is there are applications of screw
connections in which only one restricted group of people is to be made possible."

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gScfhVXCoLs
Click to expand...
In all fairness, BMW’s proprietary screw head design looks fairly ergonomic. If BMW provides a free screwdriver, or screwdriver bits, with the purchase of a new car, I’m entirely in favor of it. If BMW provides affordable licensing to third parties, I’d be happy to see this screw head in the building supply store. There is even a precedent where a foreign subsidiary of an American automotive company introduced a proprietary screw to speed the production of wooden car bodies and the design of was widely adopted in the building trades. Bonus points to anyone who can name that screw!

Personally, I think it would be an improvement if interior trim was affixed with visible decorative screws as opposed to hidden plastic clips. It’s nerve wracking to remove a door card on a modern car to fix a broken power window motor or switch.
 
TinWing said:
... There is even a precedent where a foreign subsidiary of an American automotive company introduced a proprietary screw to speed the production of wooden car bodies and the design of was widely adopted in the building trades. Bonus points to anyone who can name that screw! ...
Click to expand...

Probably a reference to Peter Robertson's square-head drive screw of 1906-1907 (CA 103387, US 103387A). Henry Ford recognised the time-savings inherent in this tapered-socket design (which freed the assemblers' other hand). Robertson would not license the screw design to Ford which limited the screws' use to Canadian-made Fords of the era.

The Phillips screw also fits if - for "foreign" - you trace its origins all the way back to John Frearson's British 'cruciform orifice' screw head of 1851. (Re-patented in the UK in 1870 (UK Patent 1971), the US in 1873, and Canada (Patent 5950) in 1876.)

The shallower 'Phillips' screw head was actually created by Oregon auto mechanic John P. Thompson. He patented his concept in 1932 (US Patent 1908080). Rights were assigned to Henry F. Phillips (then of the Oregon Copper Company) who formed the Phillips Screw Company in Portland in 1933.

Manufacture of the 'Phillips' screw was taken up by the American Screw Company of Providence, RI, in 1936. By 1937, the 'Phillips' screw was being used by GM to build Cadillacs. Later on, a hybrid Phillips/Robertson head was devised for the electrical trades.

How many bonus points did I win?!
 
Apophenia said:
Probably a reference to Peter Robertson's square-head drive screw of 1906-1907 (CA 103387, US 103387A). Henry Ford recognised the time-savings inherent in this tapered-socket design (which freed the assemblers' other hand). Robertson would not license the screw design to Ford which limited the screws' use to Canadian-made Fords of the era.

The Phillips screw also fits if - for "foreign" - you trace its origins all the way back to John Frearson's British 'cruciform orifice' screw head of 1851. (Re-patented in the UK in 1870 (UK Patent 1971), the US in 1873, and Canada (Patent 5950) in 1876.)

The shallower 'Phillips' screw head was actually created by Oregon auto mechanic John P. Thompson. He patented his concept in 1932 (US Patent 1908080). Rights were assigned to Henry F. Phillips (then of the Oregon Copper Company) who formed the Phillips Screw Company in Portland in 1933.

Manufacture of the 'Phillips' screw was taken up by the American Screw Company of Providence, RI, in 1936. By 1937, the 'Phillips' screw was being used by GM to build Cadillacs. Later on, a hybrid Phillips/Robertson head was devised for the electrical trades.

How many bonus points did I win?!
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You failed to mention the Reed and Prince variation and its relationship to the Phillips screw in design...

274817376_PhillipsvsReedPrince.jpg.72a6d18df6bbec982dcd38cde9741ed2.jpg


While the Frearson and Phillips are more similar:

OIP.uc4avmLwdmVmAFAy79p_3AAAAA


Such basic fastener knowledge is crucial when assembling IKEA furniture for example.

:D
 
T. A. Gardner said:
You failed to mention the Reed and Prince variation and its relationship to the Phillips screw in design...
Click to expand...

My impression was that Reed and Prince was to Frearson as the American Screw Company was to Phillips. Is that incorrect?

In any case, the Robertson square-head drive was/is a superior design originating almost three decades before Phillips bought the rights to Thompson's cruciform screw head.
 

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