Car (or bike) Chat!

[MartinT]

When did the U.K. fully switch to Metric? I thought by early 70's but this bike is dated 12/75 frame 76 rear hub.

Early 70s, yes (I learned decimalisation of our currency and metrication at primary school), although some die-hards would have you believe the UK still hasn't converted.

[Reffc]

Britain never went truly metric AFAIK.

"Decimalisation" occurred on February 15th, 1971, but we retained 1bs/Oz, tons, Yards, Miles, Pints and Gallons. I remember it as a nipper, especially the loss of things like the Thruppeny bit and Shilling the emergence of the new fangled decimal coinage system.

A lot of manufacturing retained Whitworth and other Imperial thread sizes (and for micrometers and thread gauges, thousands of an inch) for some years afterwards, notably the bicycle industry.

[MartinT]

As far as I understand, the pint and the mile are the only remaining sanctioned imperial units.

[goraman]

Thanks I was surprised to find so many Imperial threads on a 1976 cycle.
In the 1980's most U.S. cars where 50% SAE (Society of Automotive Engineering) or AF (American Fractional) and 50% metric, now only the military uses SAE.
We still do everything else in fractional s though when I was 10 and 11 they tried to convert the whole country from U.S. Gallons of gas to liters.
The public had a coniption fit.
Some dishonest gas stations used the confusion to over charge since the units where much smaller.
And it was declared a failure, we stopped learning metrics in school and things returned as before but slowly new cars did become all metric.
We did it in 76-77 ,I thought you guys did it in the early 70's but seems there where some hold outs over there too.
It's tuff to move a whole country in the same direction on anything especially if it costs money.

[nat8808]

Nat, I had a 93 convertible for a little while which had nearly 200,000 on the clock and it ran like a train, it was the HOT version, 'High Output Turbo', and it really did shift

However i got rid of it as i kept getting the lights on the dash saying something was wrong with it, and I don't think there was anything really wrong, but it annoyed me!

A neighbour has the 95 with LPG conversion..... now you have to watch out with LPG conversions, they need to have the 'Valve Saver Oiler System' fitted otherwise if they've done about 50-60,000 on the LPG the valves tend to burn out apparently

Hope that helps

We looked into a Toyota Amazon petrol with LPG but decided it was safer to go with the petrol without LPG fitted....

Thanks for the tip and experience! I think that the number of miles I drive, LPG will probably a good buy - not enough to put too many more miles on it to go wrong but enough to be financially better off AND of course the whole reason of it is that it's more environmentally friendly. Looks like you can easily fit a valve saver fluid system yourself (it drips into the throttle body - you drill and tap a thread for the pipe.) so it will depend on how the valve seats are in the Saab and how many miles it's done on the LPG.. Still, for £650 and 10 months MOT, as long as it works for 10 months, it does seem a no-brainer and will get me jobs paying me more than that over the same 10 months, of course some of it tax deductable. That is as long as a car works for that long! Aargh hate buying cars..

[MartinT]

Well, I've gone and done it. I had my DPF removed and replaced with an EcoTune SportsCat. I've also had the swirl flaps blanked and the ECU remapped to take advantage of the faster inlet and exhaust flow. The engine feels very free-revving, especially for a diesel, and pulls with a shove in the back that's very satisfying. I also had to change insurers, because of the mods, and the new insurance I found is slightly cheaper than what I had before! £445 fully comp is way below what I expected.

The figures: 376bhp and a tyre shredding 740nm torque.

[Marco]

Lol!!

Just try and keep hold of your licence...

Marco.

[CageyH]

On the subject of pocket rockets, currently sat on my drive/ in my garage, are these two examples.

image.jpgphoto (2).jpg

[MartinT]

Very nice. Which engine is in the 7? I drove one around France a couple of years ago, great fun.

[CageyH]

It's a 1.8 VHPD K series, which now develops 210 BHP.
Great fun in a car just over 500Kg