It was only recently, since the not-getting of the Warrant of Fitness for this car, that I realized, most cars don't have hub caps.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Ben's New Shoes
It was only recently, since the not-getting of the Warrant of Fitness for this car, that I realized, most cars don't have hub caps.
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Now here is a funny thing about car terms relating to wheels. Originally hub caps, were what covered the end of the axle. The hub was the end of the axle where all the grease was. So you covered that and all the spokes still showed.They still have them, but the term has shifted to what covers part of the wheel. Then later on, they got to covering most of the rim and called them wheel covers, which of course they weren't as the tires still showed, then some started calling them hub caps, when they were more rim covers. So now they are back to covering the center part and letting the rest of the rim show. Surely they don't flunk you cause you don't have a hub cap on? I have a Buick that keeps throwing them, so just before selling, will buy a set and put them on. My books that came with my old Jag talk about bonnets, windscreens, spanners, and so forth. Course a lot of terms and even body styles come from buggies.
Bill
Bill, over here, they/we still call them bonnets and windscreens!! Bonnet, I would have thought, is what grandmas wear or make for grandkids, with floral cotton fabric!!
I remember my parents sighing loudly whenever we drove down a nice flat stretch near Tucson, and the hubcap would go flying off into the desert - that might have been a Buick station wagon - red and black or some such. I thought it was a very interesting sight, those silver things flying off....
I think hood in this country. I prefer bonnet, though.
Well of course when they switched from buggies to cars, they had to make some changes, so suppose when they covered the engine ( after it came out from underneath the seat where some of the first ones were) they thought of the headcovering a woman wore. My old Oxford English Dict. with it's three pages of definitions for the word boot, says that there used to be a fore and aft boot in coaches for storage. There also used to be a rear step on some carriages called a boot, probably because the guy standing there wore boots. Think that might have even been what he was callled when doing duty on the carriage. So guess we now only have the rear one. Of course Glove compartments were where you put your gloves that you wore when driving along with your goggles and scarves. Terms like Sedan, Coupe, and Brougham are all coach terms. All very interesting. Glad to know that Buicks have a history of throwing their hub caps. Mine is still keeping up the tradition. LOL
Bill
I think I knew that sedan was an old carriage term, but I've never heard of brougham - what on earth is that?
Yeah, good old Buick. We really liked that car. Back in '63, we thought it was an ultra-modern looking car, compared to our late 50's Chevy; my parents had two consecutively before they moved on to the Buick. The first was pale blue was called Chicken Pox because the paint job was so bad; the second was black with a white roof and I, at 4 and 5, thought it looked like a Chicago mafia car.
I tried to remember the other day how many cars I have had and gave up after awhile.
A Brougham was originally a small enclosed carriage with lots of windows and the driver set outside, somewhat like the drop head coupes that Rolls Royes and others made in the thirties. Of course Rolls didn't make the bodies but bought from different firms depending what the customer wanted. In cars it started out like Fleetwood at one time, as a a type of body or coach, then just went on to mean something more fancy. Cadillacs use the term to charge you more for extras put into the interior. Ford, I believe, uses Bill Blass as a name to charge more for extras in the design of the interior.
Bill
Golly, Bill, Ben just painted the back of the front mirror the same red as the car body - our Candy Car must be far more valuable because of this Ben Nakagawa touch.
Curiosity question. Which level of govt requires the WoF? Texas and some other states require an annual safety inspection which now includes emission testing. Some states require only the emissions. We moved to Calif in '78 and I was surprised that with as many cars on the road as there were that no safety inspection was required. Couple of years later they instituted the emissions inspection but still no safety inspection.
Myron, seems as though it is a Crown Entity ( must be based on the English Concept of having a Royal this and that licensed to sell things to the Crown), called Land Transport, which reports to the Minister of Transportation. Here is a link to their page. http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/about/who-we-are.html.
Reminds me of the setup in AZ, where the inspections are done for a period of several years by which ever company wins the bid for that time.
Bill
That's right, guys. LTSA is run by the central government, or the Crown. There aren't much that the regional councils do over here, because the entire country is just about 4.5 million, so I"m sure we're about the size of a tiny state???
Warrant of Fitness is required twice a year, and the registration of the vehicle is required once a year. I know that much.
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