Car SOS, Series 3. Is it going to happen?

[Classic Microcars]

Which parts of the UK use funny money then? To those of us who had a complete education, distances are measured in miles. Creeping metrication is something that needs to be resisted, we have already lost fuel measurement in proper gallons. I have noticed the same thing in other documentary programmes, especially aviation related where height is given in metres. Ridiculous when the worldwide standard ( except Russia) is feet and flight level.

[tractorman]

I wonder if the metric units are to make it easier to sell to other countries (eg Australia as well as Europe). I've noticed that one or two other similar (using that as a loose term!) programmes also use km instead of good old British miles.

IIRC, most of the world agreed to "go metric" in the 50s and the UK has been going that way for some years (try buying 1/4lb of butter - and Trading Standards do take traders to court if they catch them selling things like veg in imperial units). There was a big push to metrication in the 70s, partly because we joined the EU, this is when fuel started to be sold in litres and Minis etc went to metric-sized bolts etc. Someone said that the USA were the most enthusiastic that everyone should go metric - though they are still in "imperial" (American-style) measurements themselves!

I can work in either system - I tend to use which is most convenient - it's sometimes easier to use one instead of the other because the measure/ rule marks are clearer (when measuring wood or metal to cut to length). I suppose that having a model railway of a scale of 4mm to the foot has something to do with that! There again, any science or "proper" engineering I've done has always been SI units - ie metric!

I find it amusing that most people around here use imperial measures, even though they must have been taught metric stuff at school (even I was taught to use metric in the early 60s!). One of the Physics teachers I worked with swore blind that she never used imperial units (she was a 30 year-old "foreigner" - from Surrey) and couldn't understand why she had to keep showing the kids what a metre (or cm) or kg was! It was even more amusing in the second school, where I was a Technology Technician - the school was more rural than the other one and the kids had to work with two "brains" - one that they used in normal conversation (Imperial) and the other for school! What made it worse was that the Maths lot used cm as a normal unit, where we (and Science) used proper SI units. The faces of the kids when they got a piece of wood a tenth of the length they wanted (they rarely put units on the drawings) almost made it worth the moaning from the teachers who didn't bother checking before ordering the stuff!

I fear the use of metric units is here to stay, so perhaps we should all get use to using them! OK, it's a PITA trying to work out how economical the Golf isn't, but a spreadsheet comes in handy for such matters - I convert to MPG (even the Golf tells me the economy in MPG - though it is optimistic) as it's easier when talking to Luddites.

Oh yes, I half noticed the steering wheel: I saw a nice shiny new one and thought that it looked odd - but the extra spoke didn't register (we only had three-spoke ones!). I remember a friend's first "company car" - a 66 (or so) Minor and, a we had the 61 Traveller, I used to compare the two - preferring the "modern" bits like the new steering wheel and better seats, though thought the glove box door was a retrograde step!

[Classic Microcars]

I can agree with that as I switch between real and funny money, depending on the job I am doing. The other point is that real measurements instantly mean something. You can visualise an eight foot length, but 2440cm or whatever it is, means nothing to the mind's eye.

[JPB]

Which parts of the UK use funny money then?.....

I deliberately avoided putting "UK" in that post. (RoI and NI, one in the UK, both in the British Isles). But unless you're American, why on earth would you not want the metric system? It has been taught in UK (yes, UK) schools since the 1960s, is easier to work out when you've more important things to do than mental arithmetic and does have its uses though I'd gladly admit that I order steel and fasteners in thousandths of an Inch. A British Inch mind, none of these 0.007" shorter American ones!

Oh, and metric information also appears on signs by ports and airports as well as on some of the signs I saw when last over the dyke in that Wales, very forward thinking the Welsh, two standards and two languages, how do they manage that on signs that are no bigger than the majority of UK ones?

I can agree with that as I switch between real and funny money, depending on the job I am doing. The other point is that real measurements instantly mean something. You can visualise an eight foot length, but 2440cm or whatever it is, means nothing to the mind's eye.

I can relate to that. With me it's the weights that could be confusing. Kg as they relate to cars' weights make perfect sense to me and I think in metric in that case, but people weight means nothing to me when not expressed in Stones and Pounds.

[Classic Microcars]

What could be simpler than imperial for calculations? If you have 3/8" and want to divide it, what could be simpler than multiplying by 2, so getting 3/16"? Completely logical and simple. Why would anyone want to use funny money *exclusively*, unless they had been indoctrinated by the dumbing down of education? This metrication is being forced on us by stealth, by sneaking in funny money until people are desensitised to it. Then there is no rebellion to the destruction of our traditional standards. It seems to be a particular type, that wants to cause that destruction and see us assimilated.

[JPB]

Now you're just arguing against yourself.

I switch between real and funny money, depending on the job I am doing.

This metrication is being forced on us by stealth, by sneaking in funny money until people are desensitised to it.

[Mitsuru]

On the subject of Morris Minors(I wil probably get shot for saying this) but the November issue of
Practical Performance Car Magazine had a one as the feature car as the owner had tastefully
brought one bang up to date!

[tractorman]

What could be simpler than imperial for calculations? If you have 3/8" and want to divide it, what could be simpler than multiplying by 2, so getting 3/16"? Completely logical and simple.

Hmm, perhaps not the best example: 3/8 is near enough 10mm. Which is easier to divide by 2? What happens when you get to something like 29/64"? Sorry, I prefer to divide whole numbers than use mental arithmetic, which is needed because most computers fall over with more complex fractions by giving out an approximate decimal answer and not an exact fractional one.

I also prefer to use something that is linked to a standard size,not to the size of someone's anatomy. A litre of water is weighs 1kg. Surely that's a lot more sensible than a eight pints that weigh, IIRC, 10lbs. Surely it's a lot easier to multiply by 1000 to get a tonne of water than work out 224 x 8 to get a ton?

[JPB]

On the subject of Morris Minors(I wil probably get shot for saying this) but the November issue of
Practical Performance Car Magazine had a one as the feature car as the owner had tastefully
brought one bang up to date!

That's among the great things about Minors; because they exist in such large quantities even now and because many of the specialists are as keen to see them survive well into the future, the upgrades that are available - from the disc brakes to telescopic dampers to ARB kits to Diesel engines (pauses.. no gunshot heard, so that's ok then) - are an ongoing series of advances that are as old as the Minor itself.
I have seen an original lowlight car with the Alta engine conversion that created a more efficient, durable and "modern" engine from the stock bottom end of that 918cc SV by adding a beautifully engineered OHV head that breathed at least as well as the later 803cc A series. Then people fitted Ford IL4 Kent engines for a while before the Fiat Twin Cam became the default swap, to the present day and we're seeing Peugeot/Citroen/Rover 1.4/1.5 litre Diesels, 1.9XUDs from the FSO Caro that bolt to the same Fiat gearbox already served by Twin Cam fitting kits and petrols including K series, GM's small - for their capacities - and efficient OHCs from Carltons, Vectras ( 'scuse the language please) and Astras, more Ford stuff, Datsun B210 engines as a virtual straight swap for the good old A in the states where there are more Datsuns than BMC products and the sky is the limit.

Is there any classic so versatile when it comes to upgrades, their availability and their acceptability to the clubs and specialists that trade in the cars?

[TerryG]

I am quite partial to a mog, I know of KV6 (rover), zetec and dutatec powered ones. The quickest one I have driven had a 3.0 v6 from a Mondeo ST in it with twin turbos. Jonathon Heap from JLH had a space framed one with a Chevrolet V8 in it a few years ago. He makes rather good kits to fit the K series and ford Zetec / Duratecs in to minors with a type 9 ford box. If I wasn't spending too much money on my v8 toy, I would have one of his disc brake conversions and a 2.4 duratec in a minor traveller.