Things you hear at car shows

[FIVE RED]

At a massive show in Scotland on Sunday there were loads of visitors looking over our Corvettes. One family stood by our C5 with the hood open when the father said to his son "there's the supercharger". I can only assume he was referring to the alternator on our 'normally aspirated' Vette

 

[Pitre]

Somebody (to me) - "How fast does it go?"
Me - "I don't know"

 

[Roscobbc]

The question I frequently get from people at 'mixed' car events......(and usually from someone who has heard the term 350 cubic inch/5.7 litre but isn't an American car buff) looking at the admittedly rather tall engine bay filling Brodix valve covers is - "what size engine is it, 5.7 litre"?.
My reply generally is "no, it was originally a 427 cu in engine"......"that's 7 litre......but now has an 8 litre engine". Typically the look you get from the the questioner is total disbelief.......but they don't want to call you out and perhaps lost for words perhaps comment "I bet that's really bad on fuel"........when you tell them "no, not too bad really....fractionally better that the 427 engine at about 16 mpg" ....and more disbelieving looks!

 

[CaptainK]

Ages back I've had someone look in the engine back of my 205 GTi (long deceased now) and point at the bits at the front of the engine, whilst talking to some else, and say "those are the GTI bits". Errrm.... technically you are just pointing at the inlet manifold.

 

[Corvetteville]

Somebody (to me) - "How fast does it go?"
Me - "I don't know"

When people ask me how much petrol does it use, I say" Every drop I put in it!!

 

[James Vette]

Funny you say that as there was some bloke telling his son "its supercharged" on a C2 corvette with the factory fuel injection...

 

[antijam]

You never can tell.

I remember being at a show in Cirencester with the 'lid' propped up on my Daimler....



.... and hearing a large 60'ish know-it-all explaining to his mates how Jaguar fitted the V12 engine in the Daimler Dart. Only when one of said mates counted the ignition leads did he back down.
A little later a woman in her late twenties/early thirties, of an appearance I tend to categorise as 'brown rice and sandals', came up and explained in precise and accurate detail the workings of the S.U. carburettor to her young son - who I found out was eight - before going on to describe the need for and modus operandi of a harmonic balancer!

Car shows are great - all human (and sub-human) life is there!

 

[plastic orange]

I've owned my 1950 Morris Minor since 1972 and it's always been modified in my ownership, going through a number of updates over the years to what it is now. The most frequent comment I've heard attending dozens of shows over the early years is "It should have been left in stock form", and the usual - "is it a VW Beetle".
Last year at a rally, I happened to be filming on my phone and caught a guy decrying what I'd done to the car - "should have left it stock etc etc". Over the years, folk seem to have been more accepting of modified vehicles and i thought I'd heard the last of these negatives, but no. I explained to him that as I'd owned it for over 50 years, it would have been unlikely to have still existed had I not owned it, and I asked to see his vehicle. This comment usually shuts them up and he went away. Morris Minors are not a rare species, ok, the early ones are relatively scarce, but there are still a good few left in standard form. In years to come I'll expect to hear - what a waste of an LS engine.

Pete

 

[Roscobbc]

I've owned my 1950 Morris Minor since 1972 and it's always been modified in my ownership, going through a number of updates over the years to what it is now. The most frequent comment I've heard attending dozens of shows over the early years is "It should have been left in stock form", and the usual - "is it a VW Beetle".
Last year at a rally, I happened to be filming on my phone and caught a guy decrying what I'd done to the car - "should have left it stock etc etc". Over the years, folk seem to have been more accepting of modified vehicles and i thought I'd heard the last of these negatives, but no. I explained to him that as I'd owned it for over 50 years, it would have been unlikely to have still existed had I not owned it, and I asked to see his vehicle. This comment usually shuts them up and he went away. Morris Minors are not a rare species, ok, the early ones are relatively scarce, but there are still a good few left in standard form. In years to come I'll expect to hear - what a waste of an LS engine.

Pete

Didn't realise your Moggy was an early 'lo-light' side valve car. Probably a little revolutionary when you stuck the LS lump in the car........seems that almost every build over the last few years has used a NA or blown/turbo LS power plant. I wonder how long it will be before someone looks under the hood of an LS powered car and exclaims "It's an LS engine here - nothing to see - move on"!............not that anyone would know the difference!

 

[plastic orange]

I thought i would be different to the rest when I bought the LS package back in 2008, not quite the same these days, although they are still relatively unused in the hot rod world at present compared to other V8's.

Pete

 

[Roscobbc]

A bit like me with my stroker big block.....good idea and the 'trend' 10 or more years ago.......but perhaps not now......?