Down in Melbourne at the weekend and brousing through Borders Book Shop and saw a book titles 'Lemons' Only small, written by an Australian and I think the motoring writer for the Age. Couple of pages on the Moke. Couple of quotes from memory: ..as a Mule is a cross between a Donkey and a horse so this vehicle is a cross between a motor car and a donkey ??? whatever that means. ...developed as an allterrain vehicle for the British Army it failed miserably on several fronts..it's 10" wheels gave it little ground clearance, the complicated drive train created difficulties, and it was not four wheel drive. It's only unique feature was it could be stacked flat to fit aircraft holds. When production eventually started it was moved offshore to Australia where it quickly became know as the "Mini Joke" as it was only a two seater and totally unsafe with no roll cage.

I think if the auther was trying to be funny HE was the one that failed miserably

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

I have seen that. The entire book looks like is was written without actually having seen , let alone driven any of the cars inside.

A widely discredited publication. A compilation of articles written by Tony Davis from the Sydney Morning Herald. Many factual errors including "the Moke never achieved cult status, though there are a few clubs overseas".

Interestingly, the Trabant doesn't rank as a lemon, in his opinion, but the Moke does.

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1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

i heard the "VW thing" was actually crowned the "joke" cross between a jeep and a moke.

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

The trabant wasnt a lemon it was fantastic little thing - lethal but fantastic

what is a trabant

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busier than a 0ne legged man in a butt kicking competion

It's a `car' made in East Germany back in the 70s & 80s, had a 2 stroke motor in back, RWD, and a body made from recycled cardboard/plastic.
POS, by most car standards..

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Dont knock it until you drive one. A hell of lot better than a Goggomobile. Its just a DKW dressed in cardboard.

Any car that only requires two spanners for the entire car and allows an engine change by pidking the engine up by hand is good in my eyes.

I guess the only consolation was the body material wasn't sourced from recycled or melted down Russian gun barrels as per the Zil, Wartburg or Skoda

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1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

The body is not made out of cardboard. That is a lie from the west to ridicule the east.
The body is made of a very special type of fibreglass. Unlike normal glass fibres they used natural fibres. They also used a natural resin. (sort of like Bakerlite) The whole body was made from natural products.

The natural fibres they used were cotton and wool.

You are correct - the first vehicle to use recycled material - generally they were cotton. I had one for a while. The two-stroke is just fatastic. The polo engined ones were no where near as good. Better crash performance than a Mk1 Golf with it.

The Sydney morning herald who created such fine journalists that I remember faintly reading a first drive of a Bini in their motoring section saying on how the Bini created an overall outstanding effort on a car but the seatbelt was about an inch too far back.

These people were not born with any sense of engineering prowess or embracing of anything different. I owned about 5 cars that appeared in that book and loved them. don't disrespect cars that aren't commodores or falcons it's not cool, I hope that book made him feel big, because a lot of what he wrote in that book and I read in the media is just the media beating their sausage

it didn't list the LTD as failing to be limited to anything but as many as the could sell come on get a grip, sometimes the things that make a design great are it's flaws

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-doing a Degree in Mechanical Engineering,
and a few conversions:
13B Extend in a 1600
4EFTE in a mini ute (all slowly)

Don't they have a freewheeling clutch so if you lift your foot off, the car just coasts? I believe it's cos on a two stroke, you lift your foot off, no more oil from the fuel results in a siezed or worn out engine after a long downhill stretch.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Pimp My Ride even featured a Trabant - International Edition series from Holland (I think).

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'72 clubbie, 1360,twin hs2,loud.- and currently broken
'06 Ducati Monster S2R 800

in regard to the first message


the rumor used to be on the internet but when i did a search nothing came up
they must have come to their senses about it

the car in question used to be in south austraila but it never had a name or was used by the army