Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Dave Plowman
managed to produce the following words of
wisdom
In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war,
but people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini
appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

My Boys Book of Cars says Alvis. ;-)

The Cord L29 was FWD in 1929.


--
Pete M - OMF#9
"Save your breath for cooling your porridge!
W&P Range Rover V8 Turbo
Scorpio Ultima 24v

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:11:30 -0000, "Pete M"
wrote:

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Dave Plowman
managed to produce the following words of
wisdom
In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war,
but people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini
appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

My Boys Book of Cars says Alvis. ;-)

The Cord L29 was FWD in 1929.

A year after the Alvis, then. Remind me where they made Cords in the
UK?

--

Ian D

Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war, but
people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

Not even close, the Graef brothers voiturette 1900.

In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war, but
people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

Not even nearly. There were several Alvii (road cars as well as racers),
Millers (mostly racers, may have been a few road cars) and maybe even
Cords before that, plus - and now we're talking pre-WW1 - Ferdy Porsche's
Loehner designs were FWD, using petrol-electric drive with the motors in
the hubs (thus proving that Porsche had an unerring eye for a flawed
solution...). And, way back when, Nicholas Cugnot's steam tractor - the
first full-size mechanically-propelled vehicle - was FWD. In 1769. Which
is a bit before the Traction Avant.

It's be accurate to say that the Traction Avant was - eventually - the
first commercially successful FWD car (I say "eventually", as putting it
into production caused the collapse of the Citroen company and its
take-over by Michelin).

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Ian
managed to produce the following words
of wisdom
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:11:30 -0000, "Pete M"
wrote:

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Dave Plowman
managed to produce the following words
of wisdom
In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD
pre-war, but people like to credit things like the Mini with
it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini
appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

My Boys Book of Cars says Alvis. ;-)

The Cord L29 was FWD in 1929.

A year after the Alvis, then. Remind me where they made Cords in the
UK?

Pah.

--
Pete M - OMF#9
"Save your breath for cooling your porridge!
W&P Range Rover V8 Turbo
Scorpio Ultima 24v

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:11:30 -0000, Pete M
wrote:
Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Dave Plowman
managed to produce the following words of
wisdom
In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war,
but people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini
appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

My Boys Book of Cars says Alvis. ;-)

The Cord L29 was FWD in 1929.

As, IIRC, was the first BSA fwd.


--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb .at. dial .dot. pipex .dot. com
(Remove any digits from the addresses when mailing me.)

The future was never like this!

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:26:50 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Robert Breen
wrote:

It's be accurate to say that the Traction Avant was - eventually - the
first commercially successful FWD car

BSA eventually built about 7,000 fwd cars in the '30s, not quite in
Citroen territory, but quite respectable production for the time.

--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb .at. dial .dot. pipex .dot. com
(Remove any digits from the addresses when mailing me.)

The future was never like this!

In article ,
Stan Barr wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:11:30 -0000, Pete M
wrote:
Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Dave Plowman
managed to produce the following words of
wisdom
In article ,
Mike G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war,
but people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

Well Citroen were making FWD cars in the UK long before the Mini
appeared.

Citroen Traction Avant. 1934 was the first FWD car AFAIK.
Mike.

My Boys Book of Cars says Alvis. ;-)

The Cord L29 was FWD in 1929.

As, IIRC, was the first BSA fwd.

Damn. I should have remembered the Besa. Someone I knew used one as a
daily driver up until a couple of years ago.

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

The date being 17 Jan 2008, Richard Kilpatrick
decided to write:

*shrugs* I hear that some companies messed around with FWD pre-war, but
people like to credit things like the Mini with it...

No I don't think anyone really thinks the Mini was the first FWD car!

Very little in the original Mini was actually a new idea. What Alec
Issigonis did was bring together all the ideas (transverse engine,
gearbox in the sump, front wheel drive, constant velocity joints,
rubber suspension, monocoque shell, etc.) in a single, very compact
package.

--
Richard Porter
ricp@ / www. minijem.plus.com
"You can't have Windows without pains."

On Jan 17, 9:56*am, "Geoff Mackenzie" wrote:
Heard on BBC World Service last night - a spokesman from Ford talking about
the new engine, due to be introduced in 2009. *Apparently it stops
automatically when the car is staionary, then restarts itself when you
depress the accelerator. *Wonderful for fuel consumption, emissions etc.
Quite revolutionary. *Except that he then admitted that they had introduced
something similar about five years ago, but it didn't really catch on - "not
seamless enough", whatever that means.

But - I'm quite sure this feature was available on a car in the twenties,
and quite possibly before the First *World War. *I think it was called
SilentStart, or something like that, but can't remember the manufacturer -
any ideas out there?

Wonder what they will invent next - synchromesh? *Four wheel brakes?

Geoff MacK

The next version of this system is in development, and it could be on
this car, is starting the engine without the starter motor. The ECU
does a controled stop when the engine is switched off so it stops in a
certain position, then to start an injector fires and the plug sparks
and this starts the engine. This only works on a hot engine. This,
direct injection, turbo charging and loads of EGR will be standard on
all petrol engines in 10 years time.
S