auntblabby wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
Fun things to drive. However, the cabs were crampt so one had to drive squashed in, so if one drove a distance, every 40 miles or so, one would need to get out and walk around a bit to make sure one could still stand up!
Fun things.
thank you for the fascinating description of the european versions of these cars. does england have a similar car category law to the Kei cars, where you are taxed less for owning them due to their small size? speaking of size, i could just barely shoehorn my 6'3" frame into one of those things. i would prolly be stiff and sore if i hadda drive them any distance, and forget about a stick shift as there was no room for me to move my feet/legs to shift and clutch.
Not really here in the UK. There was a time when road tax was cheaper if you had a car 1300cc or less, but these days we have adopted the EU pollution taxation, which I dissagree with and here is why. I used to pay far moee for my old Volvo T5 in tax as its age meant it was taxed under the old system. For its yearly MOT test, it had to have its exhaust omissions checked. The man kept looking at the cars milage. It had just reached 200,000 miles. He asked me if I had had a new engine in it. No. Origional engine, though I bought it secondhand. He said it is hardly giving a reading. He said not even small brand new city cars give readings that low. 0.0005 on his machine with the occasional fluctuation into 0.0004. He was amazed like he had never seen a car with such a low reading.
Yet I had to pay the highest tax rating and other newer cars were hardly paying anything.
I have had a few small engined cars in thw past. 750cc Reliant Robin which was surprizingly nippy (The first year the Robins were ade they were 750cc, but then they opened them out to 850cc. Those engies were the worlds first to be in mass production with an aluminium engine block as when they came out in the early Reliant Regals all other cars had cast iron blocks. Reliant did this to build a larger car (Making use of fibre glass for the body) then their competitors, as 3 wheeled cars could be classed as tricycles so could bedriven by someone who had a motorbike or a car licence, but they had to be under a certain weight to comply with the law or they were classed as a car... ).
I have had that Bedford Bambi. 970cc.
I have also had two Citroen AX's which were both 954cc and they were nippy! They were excellent in snow too climbing the steep 1 in 4 hill here on ice or snow to get home. Downhill was a bit like a sledge as no way could I stop. Use the engine to keep the speed low and just kinda steer it... More like suggesting a direction the car should go! Fun! Haha. They did 45mpg round town and 60mpg when they were able to get better roads.
Most of my cars have been around the 1800cc to 2600cc area, though this diesel I think is 1500cc or 1400. Can't remember,... Unusual for me. It goes ok.
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