1957 Isetta and Berkeley Road Tests

[AndrewG]

I was making a PDF of a 1957 Motor road test of an Isetta 300 for someone and it occurred to me that folks here might be interested in that or the Berkeley (a T60, I guess, though it is just called "sports two-seater").

I believe I can offer to send one to anyone for 'personal study' without infringing copyright - if anyone wants to tell me different, or it's against forum policy, just say and I'll happily withdraw the offer.  Otherwise pm me your email address, saying which you want (or both).

My new scanner is a sheet-feed and not ideal for book scanning - so some pages are a little squiffy, but it's all readable.  About 3Mb each.

Andrew

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Andrew

Yes please

tileroofconsult@btconnect.com

Chris Thomas

[marcus]

Oooooh Goody ! Me too! (hope it works on my eMac, if not can borrow pc)

marcus_demowbray@hotmail.com

[Jim Janecek]

if you don't want to keep emailing these, email a set to me and I can post a link to them in the forum here.

[AndrewG]

Jim,

Thanks for the offer - they are on their way to you now (and Chris and Marcus).

Andrew

[Jim Janecek]

OK, you don't have to bug Andrew for the files they are here:

http://rumcars.org/pdf/roadtest-berkeley-1957.pdf    (2.7MB)

http://rumcars.org/pdf/roadtest-isetta-1957.pdf    (2.5MB)

and anyone can download them.

if you click and have a problem, try "Control Click" and then choose "download linked file" or whatever the option is.
this works on both Windows and Mac.

[AndrewG]

Thanks Jim.

And on this subject, I'll add the following: I have a copy of this 1964 book:



It's a sort-of handbook on driving and maintaining an Isetta, Trojan (Heinkel) or Messerschmitt.  I don't think there's anything there that owners won't know, but it has some nice (if dim) b&w photos of maintenance - useful if you don't know which end of a grease gun to use....

It's perfect bound, so scanning it without breaking the spine probably wouldn't be possible.  Hence my reluctance.  Anyone know if there's such a thing as a book scanner/copier that could do it without breaking the spine?

Andrew

[marcus]

Scan worked fine on my mac, many thanks. Odd, my copy of that book has a different cover, a drawing of a hand on a steering wheel, so they must have printed 2 editions

[Jim Janecek]

It's perfect bound, so scanning it without breaking the spine probably wouldn't be possible.  Hence my reluctance.  Anyone know if there's such a thing as a book scanner/copier that could do it without breaking the spine?

Yes, when books today are "scanned" they don't actually use a "scanner"
They use tray that holds the book open 90 degrees and a pair of cameras that take photos of each page.
so basically it is like a Copy Stand setup.
The results are very good
I have "scanned" an old owner's manual this way so I did not have to risk cracking the spine, it went very fast.
I then used a Page layout program to drop the images into each page after color correcting them and then exported the document as a multipage PDF.

here is an example of how this works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_scanning

you can do this yourself with a digital camera.

there is also a "PLUSTEK" brand scanner that scans right to the end of the platen and allows you to scan books without laying them flat but this costs about $400.
the camera way is a lot easier.

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Andrew and Jim

Looking at all the information given in the road test reports, like Tappet clearences (Cold) and Steering swivel pin inclination, on the Isetta and Berkeley, those journalists were real road testers, not like the curly haired jokers we have today.

We take car reliability for granted, but back in them days you could not do a journey without having to open the bonnet at least once, and oil changes were needed every 3000 miles with nipple greasing every 1000 miles (how I miss that nipple greasing).  A journey of over 100 miles without some form of incident was a rarity. How did the car industry ever survive?

Chris Thomas

[marcus]

 those journalists were real road testers, not like the curly haired jokers we have today.

Why, Chris, who on Earth could you possibly mean?!

[AndrewG]

...those journalists were real road testers....

I'd say pretty much the opposite - the manufacturers did all the work for them and they never actually say a bad word about any product - everything always "falls easily to hand" (translation: you can reach the gearlever if you have arms longer than a gorilla's).  Things only go wrong "under extreme provocation" - one of the worst forms of provocation is to actually start the engine....

Andrew

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Andrew

I do agree that whilst the photographs were always in black and white the road testers always all wore rose tinted glasses.

I think it was seen as being patriotic or gentlemanly to not slag off the cars being tested, but having said that it is all comparative. If what you are comparing it with is even worse then it will look good. Nowadays we take reliability for granted, and can not understand why our fathers put up with such basic faults. But in those days you made do and mended things if it went wrong. I sometimes think that the enginuity of Rumcar Members when running and renovating vehicles is a lost skill.

It was Jeremy who first developed the art of humeriously slagging off the main car manufacturers and the ramifications were that adverts were cancelled and the cosy relationship between the press and the manufacturers was in into question. But the cosy relationship is still there, it is just that the boot has moved from the left to the right foot.

Ask a journalist to drive a Bond three wheeler up to scotland on A roads and back for a road test and they would be horrified, but in 1956 it was quite common.

Less of the fancy words and more of the facts and honest opinion.

Chris Thomas