Yo, engine geeks...

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by Jamiebridges123

.. and it's a EVERY DAY, EVERY PERSONS car...what other car has done that?

Mini / beetle/ datsun 120y

Mini = falls apart from rust after 3 weeks (4 if you're lucky)
beetle = nuff said, worst car in history and looks like a squashed butternut.. simply terrible
datsun 120y = well, the first car to show that cars could be reliable! definatly not a looker nowadays but certainly a car the modern world should be thankful of!

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by Jamiebridges123

Mini = falls apart from rust after 3 weeks (4 if you're lucky)
beetle = nuff said, worst car in history and looks like a squashed butternut.. simply terrible
datsun 120y = well, the first car to show that cars could be reliable! definatly not a looker nowadays but certainly a car the modern world should be thankful of!

fortunately others don't share your opinion

The Mini has won many awards over the years, perhaps the most notable include: "Car of the Century" (Autocar magazine 1995), "Number One Classic Car of All Time" (Classic & Sports Car magazine 1996) and "European Car of the Century" in a worldwide Internet poll run by the prestigious Global Automotive Elections Foundation in 1999. The Mini managed second place (behind the Model T Ford) for "Global Car of the Century" in that same poll.

In the end 5.3 million Minis were sold, making it by far the most popular British car ever made. Thousands of these are still on the road, with the remaining pre-1980s versions being firmly established as collectors' items.

I'm not arguing that the Mini isn't simply a brilliant piece of engineering, but cmon admit it..they rust.. xD

I never said it was a bad car. Just that it was a rusty one.

I seem to recall seeing on a documentary filmed by Jeremy Clarkson that each one of the original Minis were sold at a LOSS, also contributing to the whole decline of British Leyland.. among other things..

[rictus01]

given a production run of 41 years and the last now being 9 years old, of course they'll be a rust problem by now, against the ford Ka, can't see them making that for the same production run ,

Originally Posted by Jamiebridges123

.. and it's a EVERY DAY, EVERY PERSONS car...what other car has done that?

given general advances in technology; any modern car will be more advanced in everyway, but it's not an every person car, as there has never been one as not ever person has one or would want one, but if you ment a benchmark, change it peoples perseption of personnal transport then there are many others that fit the bill far better, those three were the first to come to mind.

Cheers Mark.

Ahh, i seee now .. well there was one that you forgot.. must have slipped your mind lol.

fiat 500, better than the mini IMO it has more soul... and it's italian you can't go wrong.. apart from electrics.

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by Jamiebridges123

Ahh, i seee now .. well there was one that you forgot.. must have slipped your mind lol.

fiat 500, better than the mini IMO it has more soul... and it's italian you can't go wrong.. apart from electrics.

Far more than one; I assure you, Impact wise the Austin 7 was more a budget car for the masses than the fiat though, built under license in both Germany and America, probably the start of affordable motoring.

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by Jamiebridges123

beetle = nuff said, worst car in history and looks like a squashed butternut.. simply terrible.

Seeing as over 21 million were sold, it would appear that yours is a minority view.

Not to mention utterly wrong.

Originally Posted by sid squid

seeing as over 21 million were sold, it would appear that yours is a minority view.

Not to mention utterly wrong.

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d

[Red Herring]

I always thought lean running did the middle of the piston because it means the charge is burning to quickly and to hot and it's the middle of the piston that gets the least cooling (it also has less mass than the edges where the skirts are). I've got some lovely examples from my two stroke racing days, neat 1cm holes straight through the middle of the piston.... I'm not so sure about pre-ignition though. This happens because the charge ignites before the spark tells it to, just like a diesel engine, and usually happens because it gets to hot during compression, so either wrong fuel or to high a compression ratio....
What are the other pistons like? I can't see pre-ignition affection only one cylinder, but lean running could be down to a dodgy injector on just one cylinder, or I suppose the ECU could be up the duff and telling the injector to deliver the wrong amount of fuel to that cylinder (don't know anything about Ka engines, do they have separate injectors or a common rail?) Either way sounds like an interesting head scratch moment.