Great failures.

I was talking to a friend last night, he worked for Maxim Motors for ten years, including four as an apprentice. Maxims were the Queensland distributor of Citroen, Dutton the Australian and Victorian distributor.
For some reason Dutton relinquished the Australian distributorship and it was taken up by Jim Reddiex, who owned Maxim Motors. Maxims converted seven SMs to right hand drive, this work was carried out by Jim Reddiex' brother at the dealership.
My mate was detailed to clean the engine bay of one of the conversions, whilst the engine and gearbox were removed. In his quest for perfection he pressure cleaned the identifying tags off every electrical cable and hydraulic hose under the bonnet; he was a very unpopular third year apprentice for the rest of the day and made himself scarce in the tyre bay. :D

The factory only ever had a couple of RDH conversions done, and they were from an outside company too. There was never a "factory built" Right hand drive SM as such. Sadly after the SM peugeot took over Citroen and they made boring crap cars from that day on ( After first killing off the SM, GS birotor etc...). The last "real" Citroen is the CX before they came slightly different rebadged poogoes.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/06/381.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...15/07/1081.jpg

This is the very last of them ... A Series II CX with plastic bumpers...My father imported this from the UK back in 1996 ... I've owned is for about 12years now. I'll never sell it :)

There is an SM in Ballarat, several in Melbourne, a spectacular low milage car out of museum in Castlemaine.

There's quite a few weird and wonderful cars out there that would now be great fun toys to put onto a club permit in Victoria (that were too much of an oddity/different to use as a daily car in there time unless you were very wealthy).

I'd love an old Studebaker, even a rear engine corvair ...

seeya,
Shane L.

[QUOTE=V8Ian;2378015][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"]There have been no shortage of very ordinary cars that became extraordinary successes, such as Morris Minor, Mini, Beetle and Corolla, but what about the converse.
Which cars were absolutely brilliant but total failures?



I'd say the Citroen 2CV was ordinary and successful, but what about the 2CV Sahara 4wd ??

In French but worth reading the subtitles :)


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpodMNktmu0[/ame]

Here's a few in the rough stuff :cool:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8WpuPYnCCI[/ame]

Jerry have you seen the special 2CV built for the French rural fire brigade? It was basically two fronts welded together that eliminated the necessity of turning around, just hop out and get in the other end and drive. :D

Haven't seen that one Ian, got any pics ??

My mate in the UK has turned a 2cv into a work ute :eek: , I'll see if I can find a pic of it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerryd

Haven't seen that one Ian, got any pics ??

My mate in the UK has turned a 2cv into a work ute :eek: , I'll see if I can find a pic of it

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No pics, sorry mate; I saw it on TV before there was colour. :o;)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/06/307.jpg

Those 2cv 4wds are extremelly low powered. The original ones have two standard engines, 2cylinder 375cc flat twos..... So actually have a engine/gearbox front and back. They are so light if you bog one, you just need 1/2 dozen locals to help you pick it up and carry it out of the bog hole.

Weirdly enough they were used as military vehicles too... You see they were so light, and have such incredibly supple suspension, they could drop them from helicopters and planes and without them destroying themselves on landing.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/06/280.jpg

They wouldn't be fun to drive in a war zone. They would slow a bullet about as much as a sheet of aluminium foil would :eek: :eek:

The 2CV Pick-ups supplied to the Royal Navy

I would have thought you 4wd guys would be more interested in the Kegresse....

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE7sNh8zoJk[/ame]

Smart people back then in the early 1900's .... See how they get over the ramp over angle problem? Have a look at the big "drum" mounted to the front. It rolls on bearings, so if the kegresse needs to drive over an obstacle that it's front wheels can't breach, they'd drive straight into the obstacle, the big drum will lift the front of the car up and over, allow the tracks to then mount the obstacle (I imagine nothing would stop tracks).

seeya,
Shane L.

My friend Richard's 2CV Ute

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

WOW! I want one.


Oh, another great failure.
The XA GTHO.
www.gtho4.com - Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase 4
Have a read as to why it failed.

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Thanks for finding that Mick. I absolutely loved my XA GT, such an awesome car to drive, regret selling it ever since it left my house :(