7 ms·

I borrowed my mother's (edit 1968) Mini for a week, after my Land Rover series 3 fell to bits. This was mid-1990s. The suspension was unpleasant and painful to

by cjsuk 9y ago

I borrowed my mother's (edit 1968) Mini for a week, after my Land Rover series 3 fell to bits. This was mid-1990s. The suspension was unpleasant and painful to anyone in the vehicle. It was hard as nails. Definitely fun, until you accidentally lose it going around a roundabout at which point your sense of mortality re-appears and you wish you were driving anything else.

hollander 9y ago
Go back another 100 years, and think about the vehicles and their suspension (probably leather bands?), and then realize that there were no asphalt roads, only dirt roads with holes and rocks. Then go back several hundred years, when carriages had no suspension at all. How did people handle that? Speed was probably the big difference. Plus what else was there? The only alternative was walking or maybe travel by horse or mule. So that 1968 Mini was probably very OK for that time, with careful driving, and a tougher ass.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  Speed was the big difference. It's interesting that speed limits in the U.K. haven't increased since the first motorway was opened in 1958, yet cars have got a lot safer. I wonder if autonomous vehicles will change that...
  - simias 9y ago
    Human reaction times haven't increased, that's probably the main issue with speed. It's also not generally very eco-friendly to drive faster, so I doubt limits are going to increase regardless of safety.
  - Lio 9y ago
    When the first UK motorway, the M1, opened it had no speed limit. When the speed limit was introduced, in 1965, it was originally a temporary measure to reduce excessive fuel consumption. The non-motorway speed limit was again reduced in 1974 for the same reason [1]. (Sorry I can't find a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits off hand). http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559807.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15...
    - KineticLensman 9y ago
      > a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits in the UK, 25 November 1965 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_United_Kingdom#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_Unite...
    - wyager 9y ago
      Fascinating. I wonder if it's possible to control for improved car safety when looking at the decreasing risk of driving over time; did speed limits make highways/motorways safer or more dangerous? I recall reading that (counter-intuitively), removing stop signs from a residential area made it safer, and I wonder if the same is true for speed limits. Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower).
      - gsnedders 9y ago
        > Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower). I have the impression that this is very different in most of Europe compared with most of the places in the US I've driven: in the US, most roads have a speed limit ultimately set to the lower of what's politically acceptable and what an engineering is willing to sign off on as safe, AFAIK; in most parts of Europe, there are two or three standard speed limits (urban, rural, highway) that apply everywhere and speed limits are only altered downwards if there's a stretch that's a particular crash hotspot. For example, I've been down plenty of narrow roads around the UK where the speed limit was the standard 60mph, but good luck going more than 20mph even if you know the road well. As such, you're already expected to use personal judgement. By comparison, all of the rural roads in the US I've driven down that were at all tight had speed limits like 20 or 30mph, and if anything they were set lower than I would've driven down them had they been higher.
- pilsetnieks 9y ago
  There was the leaf spring suspension: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-did-carriages-have-leaf-springs https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Angostura 9y ago
    Still used in my old MGB
    - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
      And basically every truck and van.
the-dude 9y ago
Just like the original.
- cjsuk 9y ago
  This was the original :) Was a 1968 one. I should have clarified that!
danieltillett 9y ago
The original minis are such death traps I am surprised when ever I see one on the road - firstly how is anyone foolhardy enough to drive one and secondly how did it manage to survive to 2017.
- gsnedders 9y ago
  It's worth noting that the last one came off the production line in October 2000; the later ones surviving isn't that much an accomplishment. (And yes, it may well be the case the majority of Minis produced had been scrapped before the last was one produced!)
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  It's hard to be worse than a VW van but the British gave it their best shot.
- gambiting 9y ago
  Say hello to Fiat 126, still a semi-common sight on Polish roads. When I was a kid my parents had one and I remember it fitting 5 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126
  - cjsuk 9y ago
    Better than a Trabant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek
    - abawany 9y ago
      <spoiler>A similar thing happened to a Mini on a Top Gear episode filmed in India.</spoiler>
  - dingaling 9y ago
    A friend had a 126, each morning he would load the four schoolchildren by the door and then roll-back the canvas top and pass-in their schoolbags. It was also quicker to reverse by putting a foot out the door than flapping the stick around the mushy gearbox trying to find reverse gear.

by cjsuk 9y ago

hollander 9y ago

Go back another 100 years, and think about the vehicles and their suspension (probably leather bands?), and then realize that there were no asphalt roads, only dirt roads with holes and rocks. Then go back several hundred years, when carriages had no suspension at all. How did people handle that? Speed was probably the big difference. Plus what else was there? The only alternative was walking or maybe travel by horse or mule. So that 1968 Mini was probably very OK for that time, with careful driving, and a tougher ass.

lucaspiller 9y ago
Speed was the big difference. It's interesting that speed limits in the U.K. haven't increased since the first motorway was opened in 1958, yet cars have got a lot safer. I wonder if autonomous vehicles will change that...
- simias 9y ago
  Human reaction times haven't increased, that's probably the main issue with speed. It's also not generally very eco-friendly to drive faster, so I doubt limits are going to increase regardless of safety.
- Lio 9y ago
  When the first UK motorway, the M1, opened it had no speed limit. When the speed limit was introduced, in 1965, it was originally a temporary measure to reduce excessive fuel consumption. The non-motorway speed limit was again reduced in 1974 for the same reason [1]. (Sorry I can't find a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits off hand). http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559807.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15...
  - KineticLensman 9y ago
    > a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits in the UK, 25 November 1965 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_United_Kingdom#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_Unite...
  - wyager 9y ago
    Fascinating. I wonder if it's possible to control for improved car safety when looking at the decreasing risk of driving over time; did speed limits make highways/motorways safer or more dangerous? I recall reading that (counter-intuitively), removing stop signs from a residential area made it safer, and I wonder if the same is true for speed limits. Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower).
    - gsnedders 9y ago
      > Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower). I have the impression that this is very different in most of Europe compared with most of the places in the US I've driven: in the US, most roads have a speed limit ultimately set to the lower of what's politically acceptable and what an engineering is willing to sign off on as safe, AFAIK; in most parts of Europe, there are two or three standard speed limits (urban, rural, highway) that apply everywhere and speed limits are only altered downwards if there's a stretch that's a particular crash hotspot. For example, I've been down plenty of narrow roads around the UK where the speed limit was the standard 60mph, but good luck going more than 20mph even if you know the road well. As such, you're already expected to use personal judgement. By comparison, all of the rural roads in the US I've driven down that were at all tight had speed limits like 20 or 30mph, and if anything they were set lower than I would've driven down them had they been higher.
pilsetnieks 9y ago
There was the leaf spring suspension: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-did-carriages-have-leaf-springs https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Angostura 9y ago
  Still used in my old MGB
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    And basically every truck and van.

the-dude 9y ago

Just like the original.

cjsuk 9y ago
This was the original :) Was a 1968 one. I should have clarified that!

danieltillett 9y ago

The original minis are such death traps I am surprised when ever I see one on the road - firstly how is anyone foolhardy enough to drive one and secondly how did it manage to survive to 2017.

gsnedders 9y ago
It's worth noting that the last one came off the production line in October 2000; the later ones surviving isn't that much an accomplishment. (And yes, it may well be the case the majority of Minis produced had been scrapped before the last was one produced!)
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
It's hard to be worse than a VW van but the British gave it their best shot.
gambiting 9y ago
Say hello to Fiat 126, still a semi-common sight on Polish roads. When I was a kid my parents had one and I remember it fitting 5 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126
- cjsuk 9y ago
  Better than a Trabant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek
  - abawany 9y ago
    <spoiler>A similar thing happened to a Mini on a Top Gear episode filmed in India.</spoiler>
- dingaling 9y ago
  A friend had a 126, each morning he would load the four schoolchildren by the door and then roll-back the canvas top and pass-in their schoolbags. It was also quicker to reverse by putting a foot out the door than flapping the stick around the mushy gearbox trying to find reverse gear.