The Reliant Robin

It shouldn't have, but the reverse limiter used to fail and then it would.
I never owned a DAF, but I did have a Volvo 340 with a knackered limiter. As a cocky 18 year old it was great fun to reverse along a local dual carraigeway (in the correct direction) overtaking. However, rear steer and 60mph were a bad mix and I lost it one night scaring the living wotsits out of myself!

 

Yeah, just the CVT ones. They were still running "rubber bands" then.
They also had an issue with the starter inhibitor switch meaning it was possible to start them in gear. There was a centrifugal clutch between the engine and propshaft, so if you started them up on full choke they would take off!

 

What about the:

 

So the colonials got the better cars.

Are there any British manufacturers left?

 

I was doing some Googling and see what you mean about only the hand made ones left, of which one is Noble and the body and chassis are actually made here in SA.

 

Well at least the auto industry in the UK (although not British owned) still provides loads of jobs and much needed revenue.
It's also interesting to note that of the 12 or so F1 racing teams, 8 are based in the UK.

 

The biggest problem was that the cars were rubbish! It was almost as if they were designed (if using a twenty year old template counts as design), and a prototype made which went through a total development mileage of around the block! There was the occasional gem - think Rover P6. But that was replaced with the SD1!! To be fair, the Rovers 25 &75 were not bad cars, but the Rover name was so tarnished by then that it was a lost cause.

There lies the tragedy of it all. We have the engineering talent. But as far as manufacturing cars go we have no business sense.

 

A very interesting point that, why is it that some nations as a whole, are good at certain things yet rubbish at others?
And it does not only apply to cars.

For example the Japanese are masters at efficiency and making things yet only recently they have been designing their own cars, before that they were simply copying European ones.
Another example, China, population 1.5 billion yet can't get 11 men to form a decent football team.
Americans, generally make less than perfect products yet are masters at marketing.
So back to the UK, lots of engineering talent yet can't compete with say Germany where the labour costs are probably even higher.

But things are changing and there is a (not so small anymore) company based in Cambridge called ARM Holdings that design computer processors which are used by the millions in devices like smartphones, DVD players, cars, you name it, yet they don't build a single thing.
They simply design it and then license the design for others to manufacture.
Perhaps then this is the future for the UK, as a design center rather than a manufacturing one.

 

The SD1?
Many moons ago, one of my mate's dad had one and from what I can remember, he spent more time under it than in it.