i never thought it would come out.. i am stunned.

Hm, yes... Beta SW and HW, 6GB only, just two Kenwood head units (with variants) supported... But yes, even this is a surprise !

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

Better late than never, I suppose... still, it'll be looking even more outdated soon...

Hugo

In reply to:

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still, it'll be looking even more outdated soon...

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Don't you just hate it when he does that ?

Cheers,
Hans

Mk2 - Blue & Red - 080000431

yes

beaker
32 gig (various colours)

Actually, I it like when they start dropping hints (like Rob about HP's home MP3 thing, Hugo about CD changer substitute...) Strange, no hints yet when we discuss cars; the British car industry is not what it used to be

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

the British car industry is not what it used to be

What? You mean there still is a British car industry? Let's see... Aston Martin and Land Rover are still in business. And there are a couple of small niche manufacturers (Aston Martin is a volume producer by comparison!) like TVR and Morgan.

What other British marques are still producing cars?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Lotus / Ginetta ? Doubt they are British owned though

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341 2xDell RioReceiver

Noticed Neo35 ( but branded as something else ) now on display and available to buy in UK Dixons store last weekend. think it was 499ukp or maybe 599ukp. Comes in a huge box, guess for all the bits and pieces you need to put together to make a working solution.

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Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341 2xDell RioReceiver

Lotus / Ginetta ? Doubt they are British owned though

Lotus is owned by a Maylasian group.
Jaguar is owned by Ford.
Rolls Royce is owned by BMW.
Bentley is owned by Volkswagen.
The Rootes group (Triumph-Rover-MG-Austin Healy and maybe a few others) is no more.

I really can't think of any British cars still in production except for Aston Martin and Land Rover.

C'mon, you Brits -- help me out here!

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

yes, but maybe it means they are coming close to announcing a new project. That would be cool.

What other British marques are still producing cars?

There are a number of small, but in many cases very good, kit/semicustom car manufacturers still UK based and functional, but as far as I'm aware the largest wholly-british car maker still in existence is the company that makes the classic London black cab. i think they're called LTI or something like that.

I was told once that they make 28000 vehicles a year, although that does seem a little high.

Patrick

Opinions expressed in this email may contain up to 42% water by weight, and are mine. All mine.

too little - too late. anyone planning to buy one of these?

Sean

In reply to:

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I really can't think of any British cars still in production except for Aston Martin and Land Rover.

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Aren't Land Rover a part of Rover which is now a part of BMW?

Anybody know how well Empegs sit in TVRs? I'll be getting one of these some time in the next year or so. That's providing I can get a job when I get back to the UK in six weeks. Anybody want a VMS systems manager, preferably around Brum/Coventry?

Nicholas.

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18GB red s/n 080000299, original pos'n 8724. Reproduction of this post is not permitted.

When I was at university (same uni, same time as Mike & Roger), there were always a lot of new jaguars driving about in disguise (the jaguar factory is just up the road) - when the XK8 came out everyone went "ahhhh, so that was it..." :)

Hugo

Should do, it's got a standard DIN slot. TVRs, according to cambscar, are a pain though as grounding is often an issue with separate amps.

Why not a speed 6? Much prettier :)

Hugo

sorry, back to topic.

just looked at a review. It's Phat everything isn't it! Phatbox, Phatdock, Phatman, Phatcables, Phatnoise, Phatmusic, Phatspam, spamPhatspamspam, PhatPhatspamPhat.

Isnt it based on Iomega devices? I know that some people on this board use it so I'm not totally bagging it (I have my empeg and i'm happy). It just seems like they repackaged stuff and did an car(Phat)dock and software.

still, horses for courses.


Speaking of cricket, sorry about the loss eh chaps?

Murray 06000047
I don't think, therefore I am not.

Isnt it based on Iomega devices?

No (see Hugo's comment).

Back off topic :

Speaking of cricket, sorry about the loss eh chaps?

Is that the game played with paddles, on World Championships consisting of England, West Indies and regular India, with matches played untill players retire for good, or the one played with mallets by young aspiring bank executives over rainy lunch breaks during expensive training held at some nice castle? I know one is cricket, another croquet, but have difficulty remembering which is which...

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

Nope, that's about right. The owners are Manganese Holdings Group, who used to own Armstrong shock absorbers, which has now been bought (to the great relief of many MG owners) by Moss UK,

They do make that many. You also forgot Vickers-Metropolitan who also make a better, but boxier looking one. But no-one buys that one any more...

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

there are a couple of small niche manufacturers

...like Rover themselves? Or Jaguar?

Oh, there's AC ACE, Lotus, Reliant, Bristol, Caterham, MD (builders of the truly unbelievable MD-5 - now THAT's a car I would like to put an empeg in); there's still MG (seperate production division of Rover) and Healey (still making the AH 1000) and Jensen (still struggling to put Interceptors out to special order); finally, don't forget Morgan who are thriving and have brought out a really beautiful, modern new car recently - a genuine advance for them. The industry thrives, but you can no longer point at a huge monolith and say "Look! The British Car Industry! (TM)".

In fact, there are very few indigenously owned manufacturers - AM and Jag are owned by Ford, Ford itself sprawls over various sites, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Honda all have large plants, so how do you say what the "British" car industry is, any more? Taken on pure production volume, the UK is now one of the largest (and most modern/efficient) car production bases in Europe (a point the Japanese manufacturers have been quick to note - they have even laid of people in Japan and maintained production in England because the cars were better quality and cheaper to make!).

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Mmm. Moss UK almost went bust about a year ago - are they really in a position to be buying other people?!!

Not knocking them, I get my MX5 bits (slotted discs, pads, that sort of thing) from Moss...

Hugo

The Rootes group (Triumph-Rover-MG-Austin Healy and maybe a few others) is no more.

Arrgh! Sacriledge! String the colonist up! Blasphemy!

The Rootes group was Hillman, Hunter (and before you start making comments, Hunter was a separate company before the Hilman Hunter was produced), Talbot and a few others that were bought up by Chrysler in the late 60's. The group collapsed when Chrysler pulled out of Europe, and the remains were bought up by Citroen/Peugeot Combine PSA.

The BMC, then British Leyland, then BL, then BL Cars, combine eventually split into Austin-Rover and Jaguar-Triumph. When Jaguar went private, the A-R group bought up the Triumph name and collapsed the product range to remove competiton from the superior Triumph saloons. Jag nearly folded again and were bought out by Ford. Austin disappeared as a brand as Honda came more onto the scene. When Rover were bought by BMW, and then split, they took the Mini as a separate brand, also taking Riley, Elf and Triumph with them (there is talk that BMW wants to resurrect the Triumph TR).

Like Cooper, Austin-Healey was a deal between a specialist and a major manufacturer to improve marque visibility; Healey dropped his arrangement with BL's arrival and went into partnership with Jensen to produce the truly awful Lotus engined Jensen Healey. This died a death and Healey's son now builds new Healey 1000's and 3000's to order based on modern mechanicals in the Isle of Wight.

Jag are in mass production, along with Rover, and Peugeot. Land Rover is now owned by Ford as well as A-M. The odd thing is, Jag and A-M have vastly improved under Ford, so I am pleased that they have bought L-R, as it means new models and improved reliability (at last).

Help enough?

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Yup, we buy all our TR spares from them.

You are right, they went into receivership, basically due to utter incompetence of management. They went on a spending spree, buying all sorts of non-car related businesses, and forgot to keep an eye on their core business - MGs and TRs. The MX spares range was one attempt to spread the market, and it was a good one too - but then they dropped the ball by trying to make the Rover 600 a target for the Rice Boy Racers - for Gossakes, the Rover 600??? It's an old man's car. They also ran down stocks, dropped the quality of their repro parts, and it all started sliding to the poop shute.

The thing that blew it was the Armstrong purchase. It was actually a good strategic move, as they were Armstrong's biggest customer (after Taxi drivers) for lever arm shock absorbers. Trouble was, they over-valued it, overspent, and the car spares market contracted. There was a big fire at the main London warehouse, and there was talk of insurance fraud before the receivers were called in. At this point, there were an awful lot of worried MG and TR owners around - they were the biggest suppliers bar none.

It all ended happily; the original partners who set up Cox and Buckles (well, Pete Cox anyway) bought the business at a bargain basement price from the receiver (he had been forced out in political shenanegins by the incompetents who crashed the company). He chopped a lot of rubbish, re-started the spares program, improved stock levels and quality, and re-focussed on the original market. They are now making good money and have turned a decent profit this year. There's an awful lot of London taxi drivers breathing freely now that they can buy shock absorbers again

Just goes to show what a decent manager with real focus can do, eh Hugo?

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Can you run up a copy of Visio (or similar) and bang out a British car industry "family tree" for us, then, Rob?


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

Nah, too busy doing my Use Cases

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

In reply to:

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Should do, it's got a standard DIN slot. TVRs, according to cambscar, are a pain though as grounding is often an issue with separate amps.

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Excellent. If they've done them before, then I'll definitely take it there when the time comes.

In reply to:

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Why not a speed 6? Much prettier

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Which Speed-six? There's a Cerbera and a Tuscan. I do like the Cerbera, but I can't physically drive it - my feet are too big to comfortably fit in the box which houses the pedals (I'm sure there's a name for it). A short drive was OK, but I couldn't do a long one.

I've not even seen a Tuscan in real life - I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice. But, unless a Tuscan jumps out at me, I'll stick with the Chimaera (metallic silver - almost white, with a full black leather interior and all the extras. Yum).

Nicholas.


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18GB red s/n 080000299, original pos'n 8724. Reproduction of this post is not permitted.

my feet are too big to comfortably fit in the box which houses the pedals (I'm sure there's a name for it)

That would be the footwell. There is also such a thing as a pedal box, but I'm pretty sure that is just the pedals themselves and associated brackets and bits and pieces.

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 6GB blue)

The Rootes group was Hillman, Hunter ... Talbot and a few others that were bought up by Chrysler in the late 60's



You are correct, sir, of course. I was thinking of British-Leyland/BMC when I made my inane comment, and got the names confused.

But you know, it is positively frightening that you would know these intricacies right off the top of your head like that... In my defense I can say that I have never, ever, not even once, owned a car manufactured in England, so I don't know their geneology as well as I might in other circumstances.

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Aren't Land Rover a part of Rover which is now a part of BMW?

They were, but BMW sold Land Rover to Ford when they sold off Rover.

__
Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

and kept the mini division - hence the new bmw mini readying it's debut. :)