Automotive Quotations.

I thought we could have somewhere to share some of those great lines uttered by some of the motoring greats over the years.
So to get the ball rolling:

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it"

Henry Ford

Here's a few from a rich source of quotes, Ettore Bugatti:

[On Mr Bentley] He builds fast trucks.

[On a customer of a Type 46 insisting that his new Type 46 Bugatti was not running properly] "You, monsieur, I think, are the one who has brought his Type 46 back three times? [The man confirmed he certainly had.] Do not, let it happen again!"

[On one of his customers complaining that his Type 55 Bugatti was hard to start on cold mornings] "My dear man, if you can afford a Type 55, you can certainly afford a heated garage!"

[On brakes being practically non-existent on this cars] "I make cars to go. Not to stop."

"The car’s brakes were merely symbolic…"

"I build the cars I like. If people wished to buy them, well, that could possibly be arranged."

"Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive."

“I’d like to consider Ferrari as a scaled down version of God"

Jeremy Clarkson

"I make my cars with such good brakes, such good steering, that if people get into a crash it´s their own fault"

"I don't want bloody women, driving my cars."

Alec Issigonis

Here's some from: Soichiro Honda.
He was clearly a hands on opperator! (The best kind, IMHO)

"A diploma is less useful than a ticket to a movie. With the ticket, you can at least enter the movie house and spend an enjoyable evening; but a diploma is by no means a sure ticket to life."

"A degree is a piece of paper that confirms that, during his or her youth, the student was diligent, disciplined, and probably quite detached from real life."


"I don’t require my engineers to have diplomas. When I was going to school before the war, the principal told me I had failed because even thought I was Number 1 in the class, I hadn’t taken the final. I told him, ‘I don’t give a damn for the diploma. What I want is the knowledge.’"

"I hate college graduates. They only use their heads."

"It would be hard for an engineer like myself to enjoy accounting…"

[On seeing his first automobile at the age of eight – a Ford passing through his village spewing oil from its crankcase] "I was enchanted by the smell of that oil. I leaned over a spot of oil on the ground and put my nose right up to it, and rubbed my hands in the residue. From that moment on, I only had one fixed idea, and that was to be involved with engines, to invent machines, and to get greasy with machine oil and lubricant."

[On him stepping down from day-to-day management in 1973 when 66 years old and Honda was riding high] "I lost my sex power. I don’t say I have lost all my sex power, but I must admit frequency of doing and recovery has not been the same as when I was young. Great leaders love sex, and I am not a great leader anymore. I can’t drink anymore. Two cups of sake is enough. For entertaining customers and employees, presidents should be able to drink more. I know what I can’t do. I have no willingness to learn new technology anymore. Without sex power, drinking habits, and work desire, I should quit the life of an entrepreneur."

[In 1967 on diversifying into lawn mowers, generators and other industrial engines but avoiding the wide-ranging diversification of many Japanese firms] "If it doesn’t have a motor, I don’t want to build it."

Soichiro Honda

“To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.”
― Bruce McLaren

"You're not taking the Kingswood! I just Baygon'd the towbar!" Ted Bullpit sometime in the 70s
Watched a bit of Kingswood Country and remembered that famous quote.
Sorry UK people only Aussie's would have ever heard of it.

Davem wrote: "You're not taking the Kingswood! I just Baygon'd the towbar!" Ted Bullpit sometime in the 70s
Watched a bit of Kingswood Country and remembered that famous quote.
Sorry UK people only Aussie's would have ever heard of it.

God I haven't heard that in years... :beer:

Walter Röhrl wrote: "When you see the tree your about to hit its called under-steer, When you only hear it and feel it its over-steer."

"Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows"

Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built. - Henry Ford

Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines. – Enzo Ferrari