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Possible Rerun Of ... Taller Than That, Greener, More Doors-Mobile


RichardB

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Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin, 1826 drawn by four-horses, baby 4-wheel drive thing, covered by dealers insurance - you should see what they loaned me - I look like a poor, teenage Columbian drug-baron !

Oh dear, I don't like Mitsubishi cars, - they frighten me!

Just as the German aircraft manufacturers to the luftwaffe such as Heinkel and Messerschmitt continued in business after the war making small, novelty 3 wheeled vehicles (bubble cars), Mitsubishi, the aircraft manufacturers to the Imperial Japanese Air Force conyinued in the same way, becoming a well respected manufacturer of modern cars.

However, as well as making the well known "zero" fighter plane, Mitsubishi also made the Kamakazi suicide planes, filled with high explosives and deliberately driven directly into American naval vessels.

What a find frightening is that every time I am driving and I see that Mitsubishi badge on a car I have an irrational fear of it deliberately being driven directly into me by some crazed driver wearing a bandana and exploding on impact!

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Thank the Lord I didn't buy the Spitfire U-Boat ... !

Oh dear, I don't like Mitsubishi cars, - they frighten me!

Just as the German aircraft manufacturers to the luftwaffe such as Heinkel and Messerschmitt continued in business after the war making small, novelty 3 wheeled vehicles (bubble cars), Mitsubishi, the aircraft manufacturers to the Imperial Japanese Air Force conyinued in the same way, becoming a well respected manufacturer of modern cars.

However, as well as making the well known "zero" fighter plane, Mitsubishi also made the Kamakazi suicide planes, filled with high explosives and deliberately driven directly into American naval vessels.

What a find frightening is that every time I am driving and I see that Mitsubishi badge on a car I have an irrational fear of it deliberately being driven directly into me by some crazed driver wearing a bandana and exploding on impact!

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Thank the Lord I didn't buy the Spitfire U-Boat ... !

Triumph made a sports car called the Spitfire.

But reassuringly they were on our side!

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Forgot about this; carpeted interior (roof) and back, including Renault glass ...

Exterior

Will try for an interior shot tomorrow ...

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Forgot about this; carpeted interior (roof) and back, including Renault glass ...

I once had a Reliant Robin Van (a Robin van, not a Regal van like Dellboy Trotters) and that had a carpeted interior which included all the roof and back.

This improved it a lot as the van interior was of unfinished (ie not to a gloss polish finish) glass fibre which showed the fibres. But the main reason for carpeting it was that the van had been used previously as a commercial vehicle by a man who worked as a chimney sweep and he had kept his dirty buckets and brushes in it. It is practically impossible to remove black soot marks from rough fibreglass, - but you can carpet over it!

Picture of van on a camping holiday, unfortunately back door is shut so you can't see the internal carpeting

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I once had a Reliant Robin Van (a Robin van, not a Regal van like Dellboy Trotters) and that had a carpeted interior which included all the roof and back.

This improved it a lot as the van interior was of unfinished (ie not to a gloss polish finish) glass fibre which showed the fibres. But the main reason for carpeting it was that the van had been used previously as a commercial vehicle by a man who worked as a chimney sweep and he had kept his dirty buckets and brushes in it. It is practically impossible to remove black soot marks from rough fibreglass, - but you can carpet over it!

Picture of van on a camping holiday, unfortunately back door is shut so you can't see the internal carpeting

I remember that Robin

and the lump in the road near my house, always a bumpy ride lol

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I remember that Robin

and the lump in the road near my house, always a bumpy ride lol

You could straddle that lump with a normal car as the wheels went either side of it.

But with a 3 wheeler at least one of the wheels, usually the front central one if you were properly placed on the carriageway, had to hit it.

It was the same with cats, rabbits and hedgehogs in the road at night. If they ran in front of you they always "froze" in the middle of the road when the headlight beam caught them. With a 4 wheel car you could straddle them and hope that they passed safely under the vehicle without being hurt (I once hit a cat with a Vauxhall Corsa on my way home from yours, it didn't get safely under the middle gut hit the underside of the car! :( ) however with a 3 wheel vehicle it much more difficult to avoid them in the middle of the road and often they went under the front wheel.

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I remember coming up the M1 one Sunday afternoon some years ago, and overtaking a three wheeler crammed with people and towing a trailer. The frightening thing was the front wheel kept lifting off the road :o

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I remember coming up the M1 one Sunday afternoon some years ago, and overtaking a three wheeler crammed with people and towing a trailer. The frightening thing was the front wheel kept lifting off the road :o

All the passengers, if seated correctly, would be between front and rear axles and not affect the vehicles balance. However, weight in the rear boot area would lighten the load at the front. The problem would most likely be with the trailer and the "down weight" on the towbar. Wonder what they had in the trailer and if it's weight was balanced?

I once used my 3 wheeler to transport enough tiles, adhesive and grout to re-do my entire bathroom. The weight was considerable and most of it was behind the rear axle. The men in the loading bay thought I was a looney, that I would never get it all in and that the car would not be powerful enough to move the load.

Well, it did all go in, and the engine pulled it all away with ease, even on an uphill start, - although the acceleration was very slow.

Steering was very light and the car didn't want to turn easily, although it did not lift off the road.

You really did have to avoid bumps in the road, as not only could you "bounce" the front wheel off thae ground, the rear suspension was almost fully compressed and it was easy to bottom it.

It slowly accelerated to normal road speed and would easily do 40mph on the dual carriageway, - not that you would want to though, as with all that weight on board the braking distance was noticeably a lot longer

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Oh dear, I don't like Mitsubishi cars, - they frighten me!

Just as the German aircraft manufacturers to the luftwaffe such as Heinkel and Messerschmitt continued in business after the war making small, novelty 3 wheeled vehicles (bubble cars), Mitsubishi, the aircraft manufacturers to the Imperial Japanese Air Force conyinued in the same way, becoming a well respected manufacturer of modern cars.

However, as well as making the well known "zero" fighter plane, Mitsubishi also made the Kamakazi suicide planes, filled with high explosives and deliberately driven directly into American naval vessels.

What a find frightening is that every time I am driving and I see that Mitsubishi badge on a car I have an irrational fear of it deliberately being driven directly into me by some crazed driver wearing a bandana and exploding on impact!

Unless he'd got explosive's on board you'd be OK Dave. Although they were quite fast and manoeuverable, the Zero was relatively flimsy and couldn't take much punishment, so you should come off best!

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Unless he'd got explosive's on board you'd be OK Dave. Although they were quite fast and manoeuverable, the Zero was relatively flimsy and couldn't take much punishment, so you should come off best!

I seem to remember something about the 1970's-80's star Gary Newman having a private pilots licence and arestored WW2 Mitsubishi Zero which he was involved in some sort of crash incident with.

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I seem to remember something about the 1970's-80's star Gary Newman having a private pilots licence and arestored WW2 Mitsubishi Zero which he was involved in some sort of crash incident with.

most of us have to settle for an Airfix kit :rolleyes:

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most of us have to settle for an Airfix kit :rolleyes:

Never made the Japanese aircraft, or many of the American ones.

But must have made all the British and German ones at some point.

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I've had wings, guns and landing gear fitted in case the kamakazi bit doesn't work out.

Oh dear, I don't like Mitsubishi cars, - they frighten me!

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I've had wings, guns and landing gear fitted in case the kamakazi bit doesn't work out.

The American navy had real problems dealing with determined Kamakazi attacks.

It seemed that as the Americans recaptured Pacific islands and closed in on Japan, the closer to Japan they got the more crazed and dermined the "never surrender" Japanese military got and they managed to inflict heavy losses on the invading Americans, particularly in the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, - losses so great that after calculations had been done to estimate the total loss of both Japanese and American lives in a conventional invasion of Japan the decision was taken (not lightly or easily either) to use the worlds first atomic weapons on Japan as it was considered that this would end the war quicker and with a smaller total loss of lives (again, not just American lives)

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The American navy had real problems dealing with determined Kamakazi attacks.

It seemed that as the Americans recaptured Pacific islands and closed in on Japan, the closer to Japan they got the more crazed and dermined the "never surrender" Japanese military got and they managed to inflict heavy losses on the invading Americans, particularly in the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, - losses so great that after calculations had been done to estimate the total loss of both Japanese and American lives in a conventional invasion of Japan the decision was taken (not lightly or easily either) to use the worlds first atomic weapons on Japan as it was considered that this would end the war quicker and with a smaller total loss of lives (again, not just American lives)

The American carrier losses were greater than the British because they had wooden decks that could be penetrated by the suicide bombers, whereas the British carriers had armoured flight decks which were much harder to penetrate.

But do be careful what you say Dave, he'll be after nuclear capability next! :o

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I remember coming up the M1 one Sunday afternoon some years ago, and overtaking a three wheeler crammed with people and towing a trailer. The frightening thing was the front wheel kept lifting off the road :o

Driving back from my sister-in-law's in the nineteen eighties I saw a Reliant turn over coming down a hill in Bramley, Rotherham. It slid an awful long way along the road leaving the roof and a trail of fibre-glass in it's wake. If you can imagine the effect of rubbing a block of balsa wood along a piece of rough sandpaper you'll get the idea.

It finished up still upside down and about 8" less high than when it started.

Before anyone got to it, the young driver scrambled out from under the wreckage and standing up, dusted himself down.

I didn't linger to find out but he didn't seem to have a scratch on him.

HD

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But do be careful what you say Dave, he'll be after nuclear capability next! :o

Richard wants a nuclear powered car?

Would that be "greener"?

Or even more polluting?

There is a Malasian car company called PROTON which sounds like a good name for a nuclear powered car, ;-)

but if you buy one you will only get a fairly ordinary car powered by a petrol engine made by Renault. :(

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Driving back from my sister-in-law's in the nineteen eighties I saw a Reliant turn over coming down a hill in Bramley, Rotherham.

HD

In 7 years of driving 3 wheel vehicles I have never managed to turn one over, wouldn't want to and never really tried. Driven sensibly they are not that easy to tip over as although they are less stable due to that central front wheel the bodywork being made of GBR (glassfibre bonded resin) is very light and is placed on a heavy metal girder proper chasis so the centre of gravity is low, making it more difficult to tip over.

In fact I have only witnessed other people in upturned 3 wheelers on 2 occasions.

One of these was a collision where the car had been hit by another vehicle and knocked over, not a normal driving situation and something most responsible drivers, of any type of vehicle, drive to avoid. When I saw this Police and Ambulance were already present and it was obvious the driver was very badly injured.

The other was behind Richardsons on Mansfield Road, who were main dealers and service agents for Reliant at the time. Their service area was behind the shop and access was across some very rough rocky ground, quite steep and with a very adverse camber on a sharp turn towards the service bay. The car toppled at very low speed, doing a turn across the steep gradient. The driver scrambled out of the car uninjured.

On TV's Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson implies that they are dangerous because they are easy to topple and that it happens frequently and even then goes on to proove it by driving one and rolling it over on several occasions in the same show.

Well yes, it is easy to roll it over if you drive like an idiot, anybody with no respect for speed and safety could do it, - which is why Jeremy found it so easy to do!

If you drive like a pillock I suppose you can roll any vehicle over if you wanted to, and some cars are actually easier to. A few years ago some of Jeremy's beloved 4WD cars, a Suzuki one I seem to remember, got a reputatioon for toppling due to its short wheelbase and high centre of gravity.

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It slid an awful long way along the road leaving the roof and a trail of fibre-glass in it's wake. If you can imagine the effect of rubbing a block of balsa wood along a piece of rough sandpaper you'll get the idea.

It finished up still upside down and about 8" less high than when it started.

HD

The GBR structure of this vehicles can crack, split or "feather" or break up in the way HD describes.

This was often quite a useful feature. At the time these vehicles were made they had seat belts but no airbags or more modern driver protection systems.

Modern cars have "crumple zones" in the metal so that the force of an impact is taken up by deformation of the structure rather than the drivers body, so destroying the car and reducing injury to the driver. The breaking up of the GBR had a similar effect, - and may have been why the driver in the case HD quotes was able to get out of the wreckage with no serious injuries.

However, in some cases the GBR can shatter into dangerously sharp edged pieces, but the structure of it should prevent this as far as possible.

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