I stand ready to be corrected, but believe that the 4F's built by the Midland Railway had the beading on the splashers, whereas those built by the LMS didn't. The Midland engines were also right-hand drive, with the LMS (other than the initial post-Grouping batch) being left hand drive from No
4207 onwards. There were other differences, Ramsbottom (Midland)/Ross (LMS) safety valves, and LMS boiler mountings were lower in height than the Midland ones.Hope this helps,
David Costigan
GM tried it with the Chevrolet Corvair in the 1960s, but it was pulled from the market after being savaged by Ralph Nader in "Unsafe At Any Speed", even after GM modified the rear suspension (as did VW) to discourage it from flipping over on corners.
Speaking of bubble cars, I saw an Isetta the other day - in Canada. I don't even remember seeing them here in the 1960s!
The Citroen 2CV was moderately popular here at one time; there was even a dealer called Escargot Motors.
The Smart Car is fairly popular too, but they only sell the diesel version here, as there isn't enough room for the pollution controls on a gasoline engine. They're about as gutless as my 1964 1.2L 40bhp VW Beetle.
My 1964 Beetle had a manual choke, and a heater that used heat transferred from the exhaust system that was totally inadequate for the Canadian winter, at least until the car had been running for half an hour or more. Because of this, it was fitted with an auxiliary gasoline/petrol-fueled heater, which considerably increased winter fuel consumption. The heater flaps, operated by a cable from the cabin, would sieze open after a hard winter, resulting in unwanted heat on the first warm spring day - I would have to crawl underneath and close them manually. The screen washers used air pressure from the spare tire/tyre under the front lid. At least it had a fuel gauge!
I replaced it with a Volvo 142S in 1968 - which also had a manual choke, a
4-speed box, unpowered steering and vinyl seats! Nice car to drive, though.
Ther was a small tunnel for the transmission linkage; the floor wasn't completely flat. Many of today's FWD cars have a "tunnel".
And the Beetle's 6V battery was under the rear seat!
Indeed
As were the 12V Beetles, and the Mini's was in the boot! That's the space at the back, not to be confused with the space at the front in a Beetle, or the space at both the front and back in a VW Type 3 (fastback).
Jeff
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