Irish Car:  The Shamrock

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Why there is no Irish car industry today. From Wikipedia.

Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. The A55 also provided the transmission and suspension. Another problem was that the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels and a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle..... Production of up to 10,000 cars a year was talked about but as few as ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local lake, Lough Muckno.
     Posted By: Paul - Thu May 16, 2013
     Category: Regionalism | Success & Failure | 1950s | 1960s | Europe | Cars





Comments
10 to 1 if asked they'll blame it on the drink.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 05/16/13 at 11:07 AM
In The top two photos it looks like it's frowning! :lol: :coolsmile:
Posted by Tyrusguy on 05/16/13 at 11:08 AM
Or they'll blame their lack of an auto industry on some crazy American who got swept up in some bogus cocaine deal.
Posted by KDP on 05/16/13 at 12:25 PM
Shouldn't it be green? Who ever heard of a white shamrock??
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 05/16/13 at 11:01 PM
It looks like they tried to downsize one of the Detroit "land yachts" from the late '50's (DeSoto, Chrysler, Plymouth, etc.) to capture the appeal of the '55-'57 T-birds that disappeared when the 'Bird went jumbo in '58, but somewhere along the way a drunk design engineer got distracted by plans for the Amphicar.
Posted by tadchem on 05/17/13 at 02:11 PM
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