When my wife was a typist she was given a company 'car' to collect the
companies books and ferry those about at the command of M.D. The car was a
Renault 4 (called Benjy because the bodywork bent so easily) and true to
form I stuck it on the rolling road to try to get that little bit more from
its wonderful 845cc (51.57cu in) engine. It finally produced 26bhp at the
wheels but to ensure we had got a visible reading I turned the output scale
to show double. I was giving it a final run up after gaining a precious
0.75bhp (!) when a guy from the workshop strolled through after returning
from his semi liquid lunch. He took one look at the 52bhp output and
started cursing because those 'bl**dy' French could get 52bhp from a
standard 845cc road going engine! We only enlightened him a couple of
months later.
It was a good car but would only carry 7 or 8 people back from the pub! If
you put more in the bodywork squashed down so hard on the wheels you
couldn't drive forwards! A real fun car for those days.
Guy R Day
----- Original Message -----
From: <KrkLH@cs.com>
To: <b-evans@earthlink.net>; <Spridgets@autox.team.net>;
<midgetsprite@yahoogroups.com>; <bugeye@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: Built on the orders of Hitler, the world's most pricey car
> wonder what the horsepower was on that one. My first "car" was a 1960 VW
> with a wopping 36 HP. Probably bout 10 HP to the rear wheel. We used to
> stack
> it with 4 surfboards and 4 guys and barely make it up and down the So
> Cal
> coast line looking for waves.
>
> With a decent tail wind I could hit 55.
>
> Kirk
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