British vehicles offer tantalizing propositions. Old British cars weighed barely anything and remain a total delight to drive. Classic British motorcycles match stunning beauty with thrilling speed. But old British vehicles also have a reputation for hilarious electrical issues, sometimes at the most ironic times. This reputation is sometimes deserved.
Several vintage vehicles came equipped with electrical systems by Lucas, and the jokes from that era remain so funny that you’ll cry laughing. I mean, come on, the “Prince of Darkness” is still so great. Anyway, today, Mark Tucker gave us a Shitbox Showdown between four vehicles starting, one of them a 1964 Gilbern GT that Mark says has “real Lucas driving lights.” Here we go! Sid Bridge:
I was all excited about the Gilbern GT, but when I went to type the words “Lucas Electronics”, my keyboard shorted out.
Speaking of old British electrics, I found out that the reason why my old Triumph Tiger didn’t run well was because of degraded, bad wiring. A limped it two more riding seasons with a lithium battery, but still. We had another Lucas reference with LMCorvairFan:
The scourge of Lucas lives on! Every Brit car and bike I’ve owned had electrical problems.
Might try this on my Subaru which is having electrical gremlins although I suspect it’s squirrels.
Resident NASCAR driver Parker Kligerman challenged amateur drivers to beat him to win $5,000. You might think NASCAR drivers have it easy, but No More Crossovers says not so fast:
I’ve heard the “all they’re doing is driving in circles” from people who can barely keep regular cars on the road. And even IF that was true that’s already discounting the hellish conditions inside the car
Parker confirms:
Hahaha me too. I know but they never quite realize what 150 degrees inside a race car is actually like. Hard for the regular person to comprehend! Maybe we do a heat one, that makes you do the driving in a car that is being heated to an immensely high heat… Then again we might kill a person haha.
Finally, let’s stop at today’s Cold Start, where Jason obsessed over the shape of the Ford Bronco’s “curly bracket” LED taillights. Angel “the Cobra” Martin says:
Curley Brackets played inside linebacker at LSU in the late 70’s alongside Feral Katz and Librarian Booker.
Alright, I lost my composure at “Librarian Booker.” Thanks for the laugh and have a great evening.
Not just the Brits… My ’01 Jetta TDI had some impossible-to-find parasitic drain that sent several large batteries to an early lead-recycling plant. And required a set of heavy gauge jumper cables in the trunk.
I am sick and damn tired of all the disrespect aimed at the Brits.
Think about this: The Brits gave us many electrical firsts, such as:
— Auto-dimming headlights
— Intermittent wipers
— Self-canceling turn signals
— Stop-start systems
And plenty more.
Thank you, Joe Lucas!
The British solution to this was to get rid of all indigenous production. British-built Nissans don’t have a reputation for electrical problems.
Even a British toaster will leak oil.
You are supposed to apply the butter *after* the bread has been toasted, not before.
I had an electrical problem with my old British car which meant that the overdrive shorted to earth through the gear knob. I drove it like that for several months.
Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas also makes refrigerators.
Why didn’t the English make computers?
They couldn’t find a way to make them leak oil.
Funny.
But they certainly did: Sinclair, Amstrad, even some Commodore models.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_computers
– Very suitably they even made … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torch_Computers 😀
Also most of the gadgets and smart everything (including USB-C cords) have their (ARM) licenced processors.
To me the quintessentially British PC was the Acorn, and yes it’s a joke, just like “why do the English drink warm beer? They all have Lucas refrigerators”
I can understand the other British Achilles heel of vehicles overheating (on an island not know for warmth), but the electrical nightmares of British cars are inexcusable – an environment dripping with damp should have evolved massively to be over-built & insulated electrics.
But, thankfully, both my British built car, and motorcycle have been solid.
We have trouble with anything less than 240V, 13A.
Yup- crank the voltage up till the faults self clear… or at least start to illuminate 😀