Overhang in car parking bay

And MG beat that with a 1 1/4 litre 4. ;-)

That is a 'special' I assume?

I don't pretend to be a 'boy racer' or even a 'petrol head', I just like cars, but 140 mph from an ordinary MG seems 'generous'.

The original Anglia (1946) was 3.861m long. The last style (1967)

3.912m. A Ford Focus, I would say the modern equivalent, is between 4.358 and 4.563m long. Even a decent sized 4x4 is only 4.695m long, and it doesn't overhang a normal parking space.

Even if you compare widths, the 4x4 to a Smart Car, the difference is far less than you would think- I did it recently in another group.

You can't really compare 'old' cars to modern ones- things like transverse engines, changes in positions of engines/gearbox (or transmissions), better design techniques etc. have changed hugely over the years.

I remember the 'rounded' Anglia and the sloping window one, my father had the former and my elder brother the latter. My father also had a Ford Popular- similar to the 'sit up' Anglia. All 'every day' man's cars of their time- at least for those who had a car, like the Morris Minor. The Herald was a bit more 'sporty' or 'rakish' perhaps, especially the convertible. My father kept his car in a garage in a community block and the man in the next garage had a Herald. It was a lovely car.

My father replaced the Anglia with a Mk1 Cortina, it seemed much larger but, on checking, I see it was 4.274m long, so about 400mm longer than the last Anglia, say 16".

I'd be most surprised if a road Deusenberg had a top speed of 140 mph in

1935.

The MG was a special designed for record breaking. But did use a heavily modified production engine. As used by other MGs.

IIRC, the main difference is being able to pass a crash test. Which requires bodywork to crumple and absorb the impact, without the passenger area deforming. Meaning basically much bigger cars for the same interior (or less) space. Biggest interior I ever had was an Austin 1800 - which wasn't that large a car overall.

Is that the one known 'affectionately' as the "Land Crab" by any chance?

That one

Duesenbergs were the fastest road cars at the time, straingh 8 overhead cam, 260 bhp but over 300 bhp with optional supercharger. Luvely car if you can afford one...

My parents had one of those. I remember it breaking down in a torrential downpour (distributor and leads were at the front of the trnsverse engine and exposed to the weather). Eventually written off by an elderly neighbour (who shouldn't have been driving, as he was an unaccompanied learner) and as my dad then had a company car and the second car was mo longer needed for towing, it was replaced with a Fiat 126!

SteveW

They fit those zones into very small cars- look at all of the cars like Picantos and even Smart Cars.

I'm not suggesting the old cars were designed to meet current standards but size wouldn't be a show stopper to build a modern version of an old car- same size and similar in other ways. External features which would 'show' would be things that would, for example, harm pedestrians.

As for the Austin A1800, I think that was a car James May tore to shreds on one of his 'Peoples Cars' series. I don't know it myself- beyond having seen a few.

Naw... You want one of these instead:

;-)

Yes - that's the one. Great car. Got thrashed round Europe on holidays for several years running fully loaded and never complained.

Bit of an ugly duckling, though.

Can't say I remember seeing that one and would be rather surprised as he does tend to see the better bits of a car rather than just its 0-60 time. As I said, it had more interior space than even a Silver Shadow Rolls - certainly in terms of rear leg room. Despite it being of average length. It was also a very stable high speed cruiser. Far better than the common RWD of those days.

Friends of us had an Opel Kapitan about 1958, those days all cars had different sounds and as a boy I could tell which car would come around the corner. We were sometimes invited to the beach, but to acomodate everybody, one of us had to go into the boot. Imagine how this must have been felt for a 50 miles ride?

He does tend to be the 'more balanced' of the Top Gear Three, although it was his own program. If it is the car I'm thinking of, it was 'adopted' by the Government for 'lower level' Ministers etc and this was one of the things he mentioned.

Don't remember seeing it used as a government vehicle. Not to say it wasn't.

Austin also produced a real oddball. The basic 1800 body adapted to RWD with a real boat anchor of an engine - the C series 3 litre. Which although quite refined had very little better performance due to the vast extra weight. And less interior space due to the transmission tunnel. Might have been interesting with the Rover V8, though.

My brother had a couple of those and loved them for towing.

My aunt had one in the 70s. Big, and thirsty from what I remember. Very thin on the ground now. It must have been a dog, because she only had it a matter of weeks, and my dad was summoned to help fix it...

They were pretty rare even when current. Suppose Austin did need a big car to replace the old Westminster.

But then the twin carb 1800S had about the same performance but much better economy. They might have sold the 3 litre if it had a very posh interior - Van Den Plas or whatever, but it was pretty basic for a car of that price.

The MGC was similar. Stick a great boat anchor of an engine in - with a very poor power output - and wonder why it flops.

London Fire Brigade had both the 1800 and 2200 autos in the early 70s for div officers use.

2200 was actually quite a nice car to drive with auto gearbox

-

We had a 2200 (pretty certain it was auto, ), and it was an upmarket version, fast, comfortable and roomy.