The Grand Tour A–Z of the Car

397 Pages·2018·30.16 MB·English

by  HarperCollins

Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Welcome
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
XYX
About the Publisher
Welcome
Welcome to the only compendium of car facts you’ll ever need, assuming you
don’t need too many car facts.
During the making of The Grand Tour television programme we’re forever
being asked the same questions. ‘How was Daihatsu established?’ ‘What killed
the founder of MG?’ ‘Is there a name for the massive junction near Birmingham
where the M40 and M42 motorways meet?’ And, as always, we say, ‘Shut up,
fictional question-asking person we’ve just invented for rhetorical purposes. It’ll
all be in the book of car facts we’re going to compile.’
And now, at last, the answers to these and many, many other motoring-related
questions have been lovingly assembled into what we can only call an actual
encyclopaedia of the car, although one of those encyclopaedias where there
might be some things that the authors have forgotten and bits of it are made up
and James got bogged down in certain facts even though we asked him not to.
If this sounds like the kind of encyclopaedia you need, then welcome, friend,
welcome. Otherwise, it’s too late. You were given this as a present and to return
it would look rude. So there.
it would look rude. So there.

A
IS FOR...
Ha! I am steering und you are not.
ABS
Also known as anti-lock braking system, ABS is a feature which detects if any
of a car’s wheels are about to lock under braking and rapidly releases then re-
applies braking pressure many times per second to hold the wheel on the point of
locking, and therefore maximum braking effect, while keeping the wheels
turning, thereby allowing the car to steer rather than skid. Sounds pretty boring,
but for some reason certain men’s magazines are obsessed with it and put ways
to improve your ABS on the cover every month. ‘Better ABS in just three
weeks’ they say, or ‘Get bigger ABS this summer’. Quite why you’d want
bigger anti-lock brakes isn’t clear, especially in summer when, actually, the risk
of skidding is likely to be lower due to drier weather.
..........................................
AMAZED