R50/53 Britishness
#1
04-18-2019, 06:43 AM
Britishness
It took me a minute to get used to the bonnet release being on the passenger side, which is rather odd, but evidence of it being originally developed as a right hand drive car.
Is the R50/R52/R53 the only MINI with that configuration?
And,
to the topic of Britishness,
with a happy nod towards the "beer can" exhaust tips,
I really like how the cup holders are perfect for a can of brown ale!
Here I was very tempted to post up the Drinking and Driving song by The Business...
...but instead I'll go with
The Specials.
And yet there's more,
the central cubby makes a perfect pipe rest and if anything is quintessential British it'd be the gentle art of pipe smoking.
Here's a 1962 Dunhill Shell Briar shape 252 classic billiard with fish tail lip happily resting...
...I really like these subtle touches.
As a side note,
I like to jam on rude boy rocksteady which jacks my union full ballast.
Is the R50/R52/R53 the only MINI with that configuration?
And,
to the topic of Britishness,
with a happy nod towards the "beer can" exhaust tips,
I really like how the cup holders are perfect for a can of brown ale!
Here I was very tempted to post up the Drinking and Driving song by The Business...
...but instead I'll go with
The Specials.
And yet there's more,
the central cubby makes a perfect pipe rest and if anything is quintessential British it'd be the gentle art of pipe smoking.
Here's a 1962 Dunhill Shell Briar shape 252 classic billiard with fish tail lip happily resting...
...I really like these subtle touches.
As a side note,
I like to jam on rude boy rocksteady which jacks my union full ballast.
Last edited by Oldboy Speedwell; 04-18-2019 at 06:50 AM.
#2
04-18-2019, 07:34 AM
6th Gear
The beer cans were added as an afterthought moments before management was to walk in and examine the designer's offering.
Golding, R (2007). MINI 50 Years
Bonnet, boot, dampers, binders to name a few, there's an old thread here on the forum wherein that issue has been hammered to death:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght=brit+speak
My very first two cars were British roadsters, I smoked pipes as well as Luckys. My tobacco of choice was BBB London Old Guard. Can't get it anymore. Someone once complained of its odor. I politely explained that it was a VERY rare blend of Icelandic Yak ****.
Golding, R (2007). MINI 50 Years
Bonnet, boot, dampers, binders to name a few, there's an old thread here on the forum wherein that issue has been hammered to death:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght=brit+speak
My very first two cars were British roadsters, I smoked pipes as well as Luckys. My tobacco of choice was BBB London Old Guard. Can't get it anymore. Someone once complained of its odor. I politely explained that it was a VERY rare blend of Icelandic Yak ****.
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Oldboy Speedwell (04-18-2019)
#3
04-18-2019, 02:05 PM
Yep,
I love that beer can story!
The britspeak thread you linked is pretty funny --- I do agree that MINImarketing went a wee bit overboard with all that jazz, but it's also sort of fun and I do indulge somewhat at times with sprinkling my sentences with such stuff.
I have always found regional dialects to be of intense interest.
Egads!
BBB pipe tobacco --- man, those were the days. Great Britain ruled the 20th century for pipe tobacco. They simply made the best stuff available. The industry is now long gone with only one manufacturer remaining, a small concern out of Kendal - the House of Gawith whose goods are in such high demand that they remain perpetually out-of-stock Stateside. The glory days were before my time but I've been fortunate to hound down some vintage unopened tins with vacuum seals intact and've been able to sample some amazing stuff, with my favorite find being a rather obscure tin of Ruddell's Blarney Twist which was thankfully preserved and had aged well:
There's a strong market nowadays for the vintage stuff. Things of mythic proportion like Balkan Sobranie can command astronomical prices and regularly sells for $300-$400 per 2 ounce tin.
And now for some
thing completely diff
erent:
I love that beer can story!
Mini designer Frank Stephenson explains what a can of Budweiser and the new MINI have in common:
“We worked a number of 24-hour days trying to get the full-sized clay model completed for presentation to the board of directors,” says Stephenson. “So when we finished the job with just hours to spare, I thought it appropriate that the team have a beer or two to celebrate. That's when I spotted the problem.”
That problem was the complete absence of an exhaust tip on the otherwise complete clay. Thinking quickly, Stephenson stripped the paint from his beer can, punched a hole in the bottom, and fixed it in place on the model.
It wasn't long before he was called on the carpet by his boss at BMW. “It wasn't the shape (of the tip),” he says, “everybody liked it because it was unique yet oddly familiar. He was concerned that I had wasted a modeler's time milling the piece when his time could be better spent elsewhere. That was when I felt the need to confess.”
That confession got him stunned silence followed by nearly uncontrollable laughter.”
:
http://www.motoringfile.com/2004/03/...s_exhaust_tip/
“We worked a number of 24-hour days trying to get the full-sized clay model completed for presentation to the board of directors,” says Stephenson. “So when we finished the job with just hours to spare, I thought it appropriate that the team have a beer or two to celebrate. That's when I spotted the problem.”
That problem was the complete absence of an exhaust tip on the otherwise complete clay. Thinking quickly, Stephenson stripped the paint from his beer can, punched a hole in the bottom, and fixed it in place on the model.
It wasn't long before he was called on the carpet by his boss at BMW. “It wasn't the shape (of the tip),” he says, “everybody liked it because it was unique yet oddly familiar. He was concerned that I had wasted a modeler's time milling the piece when his time could be better spent elsewhere. That was when I felt the need to confess.”
That confession got him stunned silence followed by nearly uncontrollable laughter.”
:
http://www.motoringfile.com/2004/03/...s_exhaust_tip/
I have always found regional dialects to be of intense interest.
Egads!
BBB pipe tobacco --- man, those were the days. Great Britain ruled the 20th century for pipe tobacco. They simply made the best stuff available. The industry is now long gone with only one manufacturer remaining, a small concern out of Kendal - the House of Gawith whose goods are in such high demand that they remain perpetually out-of-stock Stateside. The glory days were before my time but I've been fortunate to hound down some vintage unopened tins with vacuum seals intact and've been able to sample some amazing stuff, with my favorite find being a rather obscure tin of Ruddell's Blarney Twist which was thankfully preserved and had aged well:
There's a strong market nowadays for the vintage stuff. Things of mythic proportion like Balkan Sobranie can command astronomical prices and regularly sells for $300-$400 per 2 ounce tin.
And now for some
thing completely diff
erent:
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Andy_S (04-18-2019)
#4
04-19-2019, 07:35 AM
6th Gear
#5
04-20-2019, 04:40 AM
It only looks similar, although it's the same concept, but they used feral goat droppings instead of Icelandic yak shidt because it was more of a simple workingmans baccy.
The imported yak stuff was quite expensive, so it was usually reserved for use in the more sophisticated blends.
I forget the writer, but paraphrasing he wrote regarding pipe tobacco "...the more foul it smells, the much better it tastes..." or something to that effect. LOL
With such stinky mixtures it's usually the pungent latakia tobacco which was traditionally from Syria and had long been rumored that it was fire-cured over smoldering camel dung!
Here's a currently available blend which is amusingly named in that vein:
#6
04-20-2019, 06:03 AM
Oldboy.
With regards to the Geordie accent (mainly associated with the Newcastle/North East area), I have trouble understanding what they say and I was born in England! To my wife, who is American, it is totally incomprehensible. She can barely understand my brother, who has lived in the North West of England/Lake District, for about 40 years.
With regards to the Geordie accent (mainly associated with the Newcastle/North East area), I have trouble understanding what they say and I was born in England! To my wife, who is American, it is totally incomprehensible. She can barely understand my brother, who has lived in the North West of England/Lake District, for about 40 years.
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Oldboy Speedwell (04-20-2019)
#7
04-20-2019, 06:26 AM
Oldboy.
With regards to the Geordie accent (mainly associated with the Newcastle/North East area), I have trouble understanding what they say and I was born in England! To my wife, who is American, it is totally incomprehensible. She can barely understand my brother, who has lived in the North West of England/Lake District, for about 40 years.
With regards to the Geordie accent (mainly associated with the Newcastle/North East area), I have trouble understanding what they say and I was born in England! To my wife, who is American, it is totally incomprehensible. She can barely understand my brother, who has lived in the North West of England/Lake District, for about 40 years.
Ah!
Yes, difficult to peg most certainly in many cases for the ear unaccustomed to such a tongue.
An amazing diversity of regional dialect really!
...and,
the Lake district!
Made famous by the old poets perhaps, but for many pipesmokers it is more famed for being the home to some most glorious baccy.
One of my alltime favorites has the namesake:
http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/...-lakeland-dark