1971: Is this the CAR of the FUTURE? | Tomorrow’s World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- James Burke may appear to be driving a modest 1970s car, but looks can be deceiving, for this prototype features not just mod cons, but future cons.
It incorporates all manner of electronic sensors and controllers to make it more efficient and safer to drive - a display panel which alerts drivers when something is wrong with the car, an autocruise feature to automatically regulate speed, a new braking system that stops wheel lock, and a monitored petrol injection system that stops over revving of the engine.
It's a motoring masterstroke, a triumph of transport, an engineering epiphany - it's the car of the future, and it's yours for just £55,000.
Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast 8 January 1971.
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I’ve never seen a “car of the future” with so many features that actually made it, more or less directly, into modern production. OBDII, anti-lock brakes (in 1971!), fuel injection, soft rev limiters, cruise control (though many American luxury cars had that not very long after), the only thing that isn’t there is airbags, and traction control, otherwise it’d basically be a modern car. That’s astonishing.
Cruise control is already available since the late 50’s, but the driver only have the ability to lock their current speed. (Ie you want to to set the speed to 60 mph, you have to drive 60 mph and enable the cruise control). A cruise control that let the driver to set a desired speed are not common on mainstream cars until mid 2000’s.
@@diegosilang4823 My first car was an old 67 Lincoln Continental, and you're right. It was an on/off set of buttons and that was it.
ABS is a form of traction control
Yes, my car is covered in sennnsoorrs 😂
@@diegosilang4823 COUGH* Ford model T COUGH*
The sen-saws are life changing.
They are cutting edge!
I was about to comment on the sen-SORS too
Ha ha ha! It's the cousin of the classically trained British actor's staple pronunciation of "eee-vil" 😂
It's how they say it on Star Trek.
@@jondellar I think you mean actaws.
I don’t want the car of the future, I want the traffic levels of the past.
You are the traffic
Wow you must be SO CLEVER to come up with that one!!!
@@redmachine7 😆😆
With 10 times as many deaths per traveled distance
*I want the traffic of the past PLUS the common-sense of the past.* ..plus the niceties and respect-for-others.
One thing it didn't have was traction control as he wheelspins off up the muddy lane 🙂
The Droid!
In fairness, only a few years later, elements of the ABS system were re-used/incorporated in traction control (and later again, for ESP), so ABS (and CAN-BUS, mentioned at the start, as the 'wire going around the whole car') were the beginning of a lot of other innovation opportunities.
Back in those days you didn't need it 🤣
@@mrcaboosevg6089 The wheelspin that we all saw kinda proves that they did - decent cars had good levels of power, diffs were open, tyres were narrower (and more laterally flexible because of higher profiles) and country roads were often dirtier in Winter because, as shown here, even fewer had kerbs to separate the dirty bank/margin from the tarmac.
@@type17 Any car can wheel spin if you dump the clutch, i've spun wheels on a 28hp tractor that weighs well over a tonne. In normal driving where traction control is needed old cars simply don't have the power to break traction. Performance cars like the Mercedes, Jaguars, Muscle cars of the day sure but 99% of people wouldn't have them and those that did knew how to drive them. In the 70s most people had less than 80hp
Personally I have an old Rover P6, at the time it was considered a fast car and it won't spin the wheels even on a wet day with your foot on the floor. My uncle has a Daimler V8, which even by today's standards moves quite well but that won't spin unless you're actively trying to. I have a 90s E39 BMW with 170bhp, i've disabled traction control and that'll only spin a tyre if i dump the clutch or it's very wet. Traction control simply isn't needed on the vast majority of cars, it's only the last ten years where over 100hp has become the norm.
Brilliant! James Burke, 85 years old now, still writing book and pushing back the frontiers of knowledge.
86 now.
87 now.
My sensaws tell me he is 87 and 3 months, now.
88!
James Burke was a top-class presenter
Still around, too - he had a series of programmes on Radio 4 a few years ago, and is hoping to get a new series of Connections made. If you look for Arlo Hajdu's channel, he has ten videos of an interview with James from last year. He's still as sharp as ever, and sounds just the same!
@@BackToTheBlues Have you seen the clip of James at NASA and the shuttle taking off? It's the stuff of legend.
@@LOrealHardly Yes, I saw that at the time of original broadcast. Being young and naive, I was astounded that they seemed to let James time the lift-off. Of course, later he revealed that he rehearsed his words and moves from an allotted starting time so that they ended right at lift-off. And he only got one real take to do it in. Brilliant presenting.
@@LOrealHardly @Martin Erskine Yes - top quality timing!
Nice of them to make sure it coincided with the end of his chat. 😉
Stroke City boy.
What a superb example of down-to-earth - but not dumbed-down - presentation of potentially complex information. James Burke is one of the best TV presenters of all time. How sorely we miss him in this age of self-indulgent "documentaries", which are actually documentaries about the people making the documentaries.
According to James Burke the secret was to hire humanities graduates to do science documentaries and science graduates to do humanities documentaries
Spot on!
I hate the way the media treats the public like they are stupid, i think the media are stupid when they do that
I was thinking the same thing, he was talking about voltage and how the sensors work! They'd never talk about voltage nowadays, tv presumes everyone is stupid.
I was impressed when he explained the way the sensors were wired. Looped around every sensor with each outputting its own voltage.
Simple and elegant.
I had two of them Triumphs 2lt and a 2.5. the 2.5 in the same colour as that one. Neither had all them (sensoors) but what they did have is the ability to rust before your eyes.
Once was driving the 1.5 model when the steering wheel totally disconnected. I could spin it freely around and around as I drove down a narrow country road. It's a memory that's stuck in my mind after all these years for some reason.
@@alanhynd7886 But lost all memory of the seconds that followed?!??
@@markboulton954 I see what you did there!
I worked at BL main disributor when the Triumph and Rover 2000 went out of production. The bodies were a disgrace. I've seen 'brand new' cars being steam cleaned - they were delivered in wax, stripping the paint off revealing rust underneath.
Lol
What most don't realize, is that this was shot on the BEST WEATHER DAY in the UK during the entirety of 1971. This was it... the brightest, sunniest, warmest, bestest day they had all year. Ahh the UK.... grey.
Still the same. Looking out my window right now, mid-morning, it's close to dark and it's raining heavily and persistently. We might get some sunshine in April or May if we're lucky. Keeps the grass green though 😆😅😂🤣🤣😐😐😒☹😥😢😭😭
The UGrey
@@CastlesForEyesand keeps candles lit and teapots filled for sanity's sake
I love how he says, after explaining about the "SenSORES" that you can, "Look down to see what's gone wrong..." And promptly crash lol... Gotta love the 70s - Probably no seat belt either... All jokes aside, I love these old videos. Brings back memories.
You can literally see him wearing one 😂
55k and poor James still had to crank his own window open. For shame!
We had seatbelts in Australia in 71. I think they were compulsory in 79.
If you built a car like this built with 1970s British build Quility you would burn it
actually he did have seatbelt on. but well 70s and 80s were so amazing that by watching these videos, i wish i had a chance to live thru 70s and 80s, wish i was born in 50s. i miss 70s and 80s even tho i never had the chance to live thru those years :(
If only today's presenters could match the quality of those from this period.
Great times!
for some reason today's presenters need heavy rock background music and extra zoom shots while they yell at you each feature of the car
the old top gear cast richard hammond james may and jeremy clarkson were all exceptionallly good presenters in the 2000's
Todays presenters are only fit to make the tea for guys like this. Now they all think they are celebritys, and VERY IMPORTANT, and whatever they are presenting: must revolve around them. Its basically a "LOOK AT ME" country today......everyone trying to impress others.....whether its TV presenters...or people on the street, trying to impress others by plastering themselves with tattoos.
It's all part of our society placing value on pretty much everything except competence :) Sadly not only a problem in TV.
I think one of the great qualities that people don't think about in these older programs is the quietness of the show. No loud hip hop beats or squelching metal guitars in the background.
An inadvertent yet accurate prediction was the cost.
How? 55 thousand puunds probably corresponds to 250 thousand pounds now at least
@@ivankaramasov 1=8.95 in today money. So if we take it as mid 1970s, its a hair under 500 000
@@alexmercer8042 Yes, I assumed it was more than my estimate. So an extremely expensive car
@@ivankaramasov Its amazing how far we've come for just 50 years
@@alexmercer8042 In some areas yes
I like the fact that right at the end James Burke completely hoons the car, LOL!
No traction control...gee that sucks lol
So I'm taking this car back... Through a hedge
Stwrooth mate!
It's to rub in how white is a terrible color for cars.
That's how you should drive every loan/rental car
he isn't cycling through the warning signs as a demonstration, that's just what was wrong with it
Interesting how all these systems have more or less eliminated the many SMALL things that used to continually go wrong with cars, but now if something does go wrong, it is usually consumer-unfixable, and BIG.
To be fair, there are far fewer catastrophic failures of that nature than there used to be. Though it usually boils down to who made the car.
If you have a decent scan tool you can fix most things or at least find out what's gone wrong.
Try replacing the blend door, the main battery, or a spark plug on many modern vehicles. And Heaven forbid you drop the oil or transmission pan or want to change a fuel filter! Worse yet were the computer problems of the 1980s in which the whole car would break and need a new computer that only a dealership service department could troubleshoot or fix, and only a handful of their trained mechanics.
@@publiusvalerius8934 Let's not forget soy based wiring insulation of modern cars "environmentally friendly" and cheaper to manufacture that attracts more rodents to chew up your wiring harness. Yummy taste that leaves big repair bills for you.
100th like
I really wish we still called it auto cruise. Amazing that pretty much everything he spoke about did go on to become commonplace on modern cars.
Why what do you call it. I call it cruise control here.
Unfortunately
It's called cruise control in Aus.
I don't think there's any law in any country governing what you personally choose to call it.
Cruise control seems to be the one that caught on. Auto cruise just seems a little more fancy/futuristic/thunderbirds to me somehow 😂 really enjoyed this video
Everything except the ash tray!
James Burke, the most amazing man you can connect to.
I see what you did there
Are you a clairvoyant?
@@mariemccann5895 Of course not, there are no such things. My earliest memories are reading along with Connections when it was on PBS.
James Burke was the 'go to' science guy, of my telly watching youth.
In the era of the legendary Magnus Pyke.
I’ve recently bought his excellent ‘Connections’ series on DVD.
In my final year of Mechanical Engineering I had a class that consisted of nothing more than watching each and every episode of James Burke "Connections" and "Connections II".
He even got a mention in the Human League song "Black Hit of Space" (Get James Burke on the case....)
@@infrasleep travelogue is a cool album as is reproduction
Grew up watching Tomorrows World in the 70’s with James Burke and Raymond Baxter. It really was a show ahead of its time, no pun intended. Be interesting to see how many of those inventions came to fruition.
Always presented live. Thursday night just before TOTP!
The show(s) most ahead of its/their time was Thunderbirds (and other Gerry Anderson creations). Still don’t have swimming pools that retract though!
@@phillipecook3227 That's right, mate. Watching Tomorrows World at 7.00pm thursday evening with my dad, and then Top of the Pops at 7. 30.
@@hideouslyugly I think most dads liked Pan's People ....
All of them, but not within the ten years that was predicted. EFI was probably the biggest single improvement in engine tech of that era that has underpinned most of the development of lower emissions high pressure fuel systems. Thankfully the system of alerts requiring you to look down and away from the road ahead didn't catch on until Nokia appeared on the scene....
Love James Burke. Especially his Connections series.
Great series. Should be shown in schools today but kids couldn't handle it.
@@bertroost1675 You sound old, old chap.
@@dac545j early 50's
Tomorrow's World was my favourite programme in those days! 👍
James Burke inspired a generation .He was at the time “from the future”.
Oh how rose tinted your glasses must be lol
Indeed he was! In 1973 he predicted the greater use of computers in business decisions, the creation of metadata banks of personal information and even more profound changes in human behavior including a willingness to reveal personal information to strangers, including a worldwide revolution in communications and computer technology that would allow people to exchange ideas and opinions instantaneously. It’s also nice to hear that he is still with us!
@@Tawny6702 Come on. To the informed he was just stating the obvious. Think about it. Maybe you have.
@@mariemccann5895 easy to say that from a 2022 perspective!
@@Tawny6702 If you cant see that it is manifestly the case you must be coming from a place of ignorance. Try observing the evidence a bit more rather than making assumptions.
The way it took off at the end, and how refined and nice it sounded, is something a 2000s car would be proud of, let alone something from the 70s.
Triumph cars - especially the pre-BL ones - were always under-appreciated. That straight six was an excellent engine, look how long BMW used straight sixes for.
H reg. 1969-70.
I'm pretty sure all the lead in the petrol had something to do with that. ;)
@@HowardLeVert BMW still uses straight 6s. Now you gotta fork over at least 7k to own one with it new.
You never heard a70 Cuda or Monte Carlo....
Less than 10 years later, the 2.5’s were available as runners from scrap yards for 10 to 20 quid after failing MOT’s on serious issues. Weakest point was the single vertical bolt holding the rear axle to the floor combined with exponential RUST. They became the number one source for people like me needing a cheap, powerful car for demolition derby’s.
yep sold mine to someone with that exact problem he went on to win a few races in it to.
They loved to catch fire when the injection pipes rotted after a couple of years, too.
I can listen to James Burke's voice all day. He would have been a great Q, for James Bond movies.
Wow, those sense-saws seem like amazing little things!
50 years later, most of this is standard on every car sold.
So they did not have that tech back then. That care is butters.
We're living in the future!
My car is a 2016 model and it doesn't have cruise control (but it does have a limiter). My dad has a 2018 Audi and he's the only person I know who has adaptive cruise control.
Except roll down windows
@@mxbx307 they have cruise control in vw polo's now
Pretty much all those things today EXCEPT the sensor warning beep. That's because most people continue to drive even when the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree.
OK boomer. No idea what you're talking about, my 90's Ford chimes once for yellow lights and continuously chimes for red.
Mine certainly beeps at me when something new happens. For instance the nearside marker light sensor has a fault (the bulb works fine) which means it goes off on most journeys. Fortunately they also fitted a button to make the warnings go away.
@@straightpipediesel That "boomer" comment was faintly amusing several years ago ... almost as dated as the boomers themselves now ..
James B made every kind of documentary interesting and fun.
I'd forgotten just how much of an impression he'd made on me as a wee boy.
The most underrated TV presenter I've ever known!
❤❤❤
Nice to see a Triumph 2000 Mk 1 on the road again. I had a 'K' reg. Two years later than this one, followed by a MK 2. Both had an in line 6 petrol engine with twin carbs. Lovely smooth ride, comfortable seats. Many happy trips to The Lakes or north Wales from London.
It is a Mk 2
@@duster8100 You may be right. It was a long time ago I had them.
James Burke was my favourite on Tomorrows World. fascinating man. very inspirational too
I had one of these car back in the day. It was a very good car .
The triumph stag and 2000 were nice looking
@@mark..A I had the 2.5 PI with overdrive best car on the road in its day, the old bill used them as pursuit cars but gave them up as they gad a tendency to break away at the back
@@jameswatters9592 "tendency to break away at the back" - horrible semitrailing arm rear suspension, which the stubborn arrogant germans at BMW persisted with for many years after the Poms had learned to do better.
My first car was a very used, slightly rusty but perfectly functional 1971 Triumph 2.5 PI. Very good car and great fun at times, with caution because of relatively weak brakes and semitrailing arm rear suspension.
I kind of love the analog diagnostic system. Of course, within just a few years of this production, all of that could be handled by a digital computer receiving direct, discrete signals from the sensors, rather than a discriminator inferring what's going on from how different sensors affect the overall voltage on a shared circuit, but the latter is quite a clever way to do that in a world where the former isn't technologically feasible yet.
Multiple voltage levels are used to this day, specifically to multiplex safety-critical switches. I drive a 2021 Chevrolet that does this for the cruise switches and the collision system switches. Non-critical switches like the steering wheel radio controls use a digital LIN bus. Normal controls and sensors utilized voltage level multiplexing into the late 2000's before LIN and CAN took over, even into the 2010's in Japanese cars.
im an electronics expert. and what the hell does that paragraph even mean. huwaat.?
@@nsfeliz7825 its called talking bs...
Driving north through the north western desert of Western Australia in the middle of the night many years ago we found one of these Triumph duds stopped without lights by the side of the road. An English couple touring Australia had hit a sheep on the road, caved in the front, smashed the radiator on the fan and in breaking a headlight they had fused all the lights. We offered them tea from our Thermos and a lift. They refused the lift and asked us to leave a message at the next petrol station for any car carrier trucks heading south to pick them up. As it happened there was a car carrier at our next stop so we gave him the message. That was before mobile phones so we couldn't be sure what would happen but on our return after several days the car was gone.
I had a Trumph 2.5. Excellent car except when the fuel injectors suddenly jammed open and it took off. Quite hairy. I once had to pull onto a straight turn off and had to switch off. Not the best way to try to stop.
Very prescient. Excellent piece. I had a Triumph 2000 in the late 70s. A true gentleman's carriage!
Sensooores! We need this as a catchphrase!
Love the near empty roads too and clutter from signs everywhere. We've gone backwards in that respect.
I need more James Burke videos!
I had one of these in the late 80’s and it didn’t have any of these gizmos, it would start on a good day though.
Always fun to see cars of the future and see what has panned out all these years later.
“Car of the future” as he winds the window down 😂🤣
😂😂
😭😂
Well it was the 1960/70’s
I think it’s very clever what they did back then
Electric windows were common then. The car was a test for more real useful things that came about.
@@johnburns4017 Yes but it still 😂😂 as hell
I love how this car is genuinely more advanced than my 2004 fiesta 😂
It certainly isn't. Your Fiesta has all of these features (except for maybe cruise control), in addition to several that this prototype didn't have.
@@no1DdC No fly's on you mate.
Why is that surprising, did you think that the past was made up off terrible ideas that never came to be and lying advertisments that only said they had all these features. You think these vehicles wouldn't be very good, yet every review mentions how well they are, with tons of advanced additions (which is what they were known for before computer technology imports), fast and reliable driving, and none punchy easy to work with forward driving/steering. Never underestimate the past, it made your world you have now...which...is lesser than it was then.
@@no1DdC A 2004 fiesta definitely doesn’t have cruise control, probably doesn’t have ABS, still only has a rudimentary fault sensing system
@@Mikeb1001 pretty sure abs would've been standard by then, plus the obd2 system in the fiesta would be far more advanced than what's on this car
I had one of those bulb failure lights in my car, but it didn't have a bulb failure light for the bulb failure light's light. If only I paid extra for the bulb failure light's bulb failure light I would still have that car today.
Triple redundancy is what you needed mate.
Great viewing. By 2002 my Mercedes E-Class had all features of the Triumph test-bed, plus many more, in refined formats. However, the Alfa I drove 15 years after this show, had picked-up just one feature-electronic ignition.
Triumph 2500pi what a car for the time !
I had one 20_ years ago.
Great car but it rotted and the bottom end isn't very tough... it needed a new crank and bearings.
Triump made cars back then??
@@fidelcatsro6948 had done since the start, the motorbikes were a seperate division and not included in the purchse by British leyland, the last Triumph car was a collab with Honda, but it was just a rebadge
@@andreww2098 i see 🐱👍🏿
The Triumph factory at its heyday in the 1970’s/80’s in their Coventry plant simultaneously made the TR6, TR6, Spitfire, Stag, 2000/2500 saloons, Dolomite.
Sadly now it is a retail park.
Class television.Didn't James Burke always come across as a genius.Well done!
His James Burke's Connections series was excellent. You can check it out on RUclips.
Yes. He was like the Heinz Wolf of technology, but not as eccentric.
No cos he’s pronouncing sensors like a freak
Probably because he was too dull to realise the truth behind most of what he said was different - he was a TV presenter.
@@MrNaKillshots Yes, a very dumbed down version, without the intellect.
This video is a time capsule by itself. Impressive.
I love seeing clips of James Burke that I haven't seen before. In all fairness, I was getting around in a pram in 1971.
I love it that James Burke has picked up Mr Spock's pronunciation of sensors - as in: 'Captain, sensaurs indicate Klingons ahead'!
Or did we all pronounce it that way 50 years ago?
This type of car will never catch on. It's got too many sensoor's..😁
Only four huh-wheels though. And it doesn’t cause much polly-oo-shun…
I didn't realise how many it had until he left the motor-Way.
Yup. I've never once used Cruise Control - I don't get the point.
@@foddyfoddy I've used it countless times. Long distance motorway travel, you can relax your leg/foot etc. Also in temporary speed limits, you can set it so you won't break the limit and get fined.
@@foddyfoddy You really should try it, especially on long, motorway drives. Your feet will thank you!
I enjoyed the take-off at the end. Completely unexpected!
That engine management really worked. No way a Triumph could take-off like that normally.
@@johnpublicprofile6261 I agree. I have a 1974 triumph 2000 and I wish it went like that 🤣
didnt it sound lovely too
Lucky man. Lovely mothers. I guess his was 2500.
When did it take off...?
So much fun to watch these old clips. Aesthetics worked differently back then 😂 I wonder what lead to the decision to record this on a dirty muddy country road in typical bleak British weather.
I like it; there's a bland honesty to it that is notably vacant from anything you see today! :3
That is what Britain was like in 1971; when this was filmed the M4, the M6, the M5 had still not been completed, the M25 was a distant dream, and few towns had bypasses.
@@ProbablyTheBestUkuleleDadEver Your point being?
@@mariemccann5895 They couldn't find a better road or better weather. And they probably didn't have the budget (or time) to fly it all to California and film on the Highway #1.
A great decision IMO. Show the car where normal people drive everyday.
ahhh the good ol days, when you didn't need to pay for a heated seat subscription
Wow this is actually very accurate
Electronic injection
Cruise control
Rudimentary form of what'd become CAN-Bus and OBD interface (or just the engine warning light)
Soft rev limiters
Antilock brakes
Well done !
The most incredible part here is the fact that a concept car actually demonstrated technologies that were realised within the next ten years - grossly unlike concept cars we've seen in recent times.
With wind down windows 😭😭 lol 😂
@@jaymac7203 🤣 I didn't even realise that!!
I believe it was more of a "test bed" than "concept car"
@@Evilroco Potentially but, by principle, it's showcasing new technology - hence it's more of a concept vehicle; with it being on national television, that's also reason to believe so.
@@georgemathieson6097 Well James does say it's a "test bed" within the first 16 seconds of the video so..............
The most advanced car of it's time but good old Leyland couldn't fit the windscreen wipers on the right side for a right hand drive.
Several British Leyland cars of this era had this issue, including the Allegro, Marina and Jaguar XJ-S. During prototype testing, it was found that the wiper on the driver’s side lifted off the windscreen at certain speeds, impairing forward vision. Reversing the wipers was a cheap and easy fix. The same remedy was applied to LHD export cars, i.e. the wipers parked towards the driver’s side.
Or head rests to prevent wiplash! 😂😂
This is British Leyland you’re talking about. It’s lucky to have had four wheels and a windscreen.
I saw a video of someone in the US doing a modern road test on an LHD Rolls Royce from the 1970s. He remarked that you could hear the indicator relay was coming from the opposite side of the cabin as if it was an RHD car.
Remember: for a high end test car it still looked externally like a bucket of sht. They didn’t pull out the stops there.
Loved that show, they used to show you all the things that had already been developed but weren't coming out for years and some things that we'd never see again, as for cars back then you were lucky if your one started in the morning they really were that bad.
My mini never started in the winter damp weather. Eco fanatics probably welcomed the fact!
Iam 72.When I was very young the neighbour started his car with a handle in front of the engine.If it kicked back it broke your fingers.lol.
i remember my dads old cars in the day. in the winter i'd often be under the bonnet to whack the starter solenoid as my dad spun the ignition. my kids just dont get that cars didn;t always start
Looks like it was filmed on a classic British summer's day 😛. James Burke was great - loved Tomorrow's World when I was a kid 🙂
I love how the driver's side wiper arm is angled but it still parks half way up the windscreen...
Triumph 2000 ..... The most important device on this car would have been to fit the Rust Warning Light, followed by the Sell It Warning light.
My first car was a 1970s Triumph Toledo. Nice car, served me well. My current car is a 15-year-old Subaru Legacy Outback. Has all those gadgets AND SatNav!
Lovely to see James Burke
Loved the wheelspin at the end, just waiting for the handbrake turn...
I love the way the audience is treated as intelligent, BTW sen soars sound amazing.
The Great James Burke. Thanks for uploading this.
The add in some Great British 1970's industrial action reliability! 👌😂
Amazing to see a car with cruise control, ABS and the other features, but no side rearview mirrors 😀
or electric windows
Lovely to see a pi rare now
Powerful car in its day
And full of character unlike
The robots we drive today
Sorry chaps you missed out
🤔
I had a 2000TC. Wood inside and a lovely dash. That straight 6 is still the smoothest engine I've ever owned.
British cars were all and still are shyte. Oh, no sorry you don't make any these days do you pmsl
2:51 - Love the "End of Motorway" sign at the roundabout entrance 😂
Amazing. All the things we take for granted today.
Really enjoyed the high pitched noise this car of the future made. Almost went deaf from it. Truly state of the art.
I liked the Bakerlite controls on the dash.
I think my 2003 USA Ford Escape has many if not all of these features. Just used Cruise control for a 10 hour drive to Canada and 10 hours back home again. My car is 19 years old with 170,000 miles, probably worth $1,000. Cars certainly improved. James Burke was awesome.
Loved the bit where he stopped and wound down the window, how futuristic is that, we still haven’t got that yet
Probably still a bit of cost savings, even on a concept car of the day. My grandpa’s 1955 Packard had power windows, so they were already a thing decades before this came out.
I drive two modern vehicles at my work that still use cranks. A large Hino box truck and a small Chevy box truck. The Chevy doesn't even have cruise control.
@@bertroost1675 most city cars in england like vauxhall corsas still dont have electric windows in the back seats.. theyre an option and a lot of them dont have them
@@Archman155 Sometimes I think simple is the best. We're so lazy these days.
Some cars are amazing - you can wind down the windows without having the ignition on! Incredible!
Hello from the U.S. That’s James Burke! of “Connections” = one of the greatest series on the telly.
One feature that was standard on that car was fuel injection on a petrol engine. It's a triumph 2.5 PI. It was based on the Triumph 2000 but made in much smaller quantities. It was still a long time before petrol fuel injection became commonplace. I knew someone who had one.
£55,000?! In 1971?
That's basically £1 million today.
My parents bought a three bedroom house around 1971 and it was something like £6000
I’d never pay that for a Triumph
No no he was joking. He says so at the beginning. It wasn't yet in production.
I love the way he says "senSORs". Is that a 1970s thing?
On a serious note, I think every single feature made it into mainstream cars within about 15 years of the show. The only thing that worked significantly differently is that sensors wouldn't be operated by that strange "variable voltage with a discriminator" system.
They do use "resistive multiplexing", my 1995 Saturn cruise control switch used it so there would be fewer wires in the airbag clockspring.
No, he is just a TV presenter, he probably didn't have a clue what a 'sensor' was. He is a Burke after all.
Fundamentally, the sensor (sorry, senSOR) system was way ahead of its time - all new cars now have some form of CAN bus, which is the same idea of transmitting signals from and to different components on a shared circuit, just using data signals rather than voltage levels. It's way more efficient than individually wiring everything to a central computer.
And "Pihl'yewshin", which is how I'll be saying pollution from now on :)
If he had said "sensor" or "sensors" in the normal way, it would have sounded like "censor" or "senses" and we might not have understood what he meant.
Love how he says the noise will stop. And it takes ages 😂😂😂
They suddenly jumped to a different angle and the camera guy was in the front seat, so obviously they had to pull over so he could get in the front and fix it 😅🤣🤣
James Burke was such a fine science and technology reporter. He turned 87 last month.
I wish they'd rerun his 70s series "Connections". It's still relevant today.
He was mentioned in The Black Hit of Space by The Human League. Brilliant
1971? Wow. And he was right, all those did become standard on cars in the following 20/30 years. I wonder if that sensor in the radiator was an early form of radar cruise control?
Unlikely the miniturisation of that kind of stuff wasn't available then.
@@Spookieham A radar sensor itself is no bigger or smaller now than it was then, It's everything around it that changed. But I think it it was anything that interesting he'd have mentioned it.
I too was curious about that. I guess I always will be now.
Could it be a temperature sensor for a black ice warning? Some US spec Rover P6's had them and looked like a similar thingy on the radiator grille.
I think it's a light sensor for auto high beams (main beams). American cars had them in the 50s-60s and they required a large lens that looked like that.
The trouble with these new developments was that car makers used it to lock out owners from fixing their own cars. Initially it was by using OEM unique data systems which only the OEM service centers had to be able to interrogate the car, then with ODB2 the laws were changed to forcing them to open it up for owners & independent shops with the right gear. They did not let that phase them though... they have since introduced many parts with inbuilt software & micro controllers inside the physical parts. They can use copyright laws to prevent anyone else from programming parts not made by them. Today on big machines like John Deere tractors, the ONLY people who can replace lots of mechanical parts are those who can program the built in chip with the serial number matching the vehicle computer & the chip has no other function at all ie: John Deere.
How dare they protect their intellectual property of act to ensure market share in servicing and repairing their products !!!
Joking aside, you could spend a whole weekend trying to diagnose a fault on a mechanical engine and still end up getting nowhere. Plugging in a computer made the puzzle a little easier, so which would MOST people prefer? The freedom to tinker all weekend and get nowhere, or the option to get your car repaired quickly (or fault diagnosed more quickly) but at the local garage or dealer? I know petrolheads wanna play spanners and wrenches but these days we all have better things to do with our time
The security you talk about on things like the john deere tractors was as a result of so many tractor parts being stolen... the market for stolen parts soon declined when they found out they wouldn't work on their own broken engine unless the parts were coded
@@TheComputec so which big auto firm do you work for?
@@davidbrewer7937 None. I work at a computer recycling plant in Lancashire England... Did my opinion trigger you into that cynical reply? open your mind... it might allow some new information in
@@TheComputec It's BS though. Unless you're a shitty mechanic diagnosing simple old cars is not that hard. I have never owned any cars newer then 1988, and I have never needed to go to a garage to fix my cars. I have never had a car fail on me in a way I couldn't use it either. Wheel bearings or CV joints going bad, a clutch thrust bearing or pilot bearing wearing out all give audible warning, not to mention to can feel it when driving. The car starts stuttering a bit, it's either a carburettor/fuel problem or a vacuum leak, or it's an ignition problem (and it's not hard to diagnose which one it is really).
And I drive my old cars a lot. I have driven them on every notable alpine pass, I did road trips to the north cape and the black sea. And I have never been let down by my cars.
The only time I actually was letdown by a car was when I was supposed to leave on a kayak vacation with my parents and their 5 year old car (peugeot partner). The car was fine the day before. We wanted to leave, and the ECU decided to just stop working.
literally the only real problem with old cars is the constant battle with rust.
I also can not believe there is anyone who thinks locking owners out of repairing their own cars is a good thing. You should be able to look at fault codes, you bought the car, it's your property, you shouldn't be forced to go to expensive mechanics, without even having the possibility to see if they did anything more then reset a fault code.
@@slome815 My first company car was someone else's cast-off. It had had the cylinder head rebuilt after a snapped cam-belt at 37,000 miles. There was an intermittent problem where, when pulling out to overtake, there'd be no more power and I'd have to drop back in. I drove around for a week with a recording unit plugged in, but the garage couldn't find the problem. The recording was sent off to Vauxhall, who diagnosed a faulty engine bay harness, which would need replacing, at a cost of £1,200. One morning it went to the garage, but was dropped back a couple of hours later - an old school mechanic had decided that it was just faulty ignition leads and swapped those ... it never had a problem again.
Loved James Burke's "Connections"! Thanks, this was fun.
Love the way he says "Sensors"
And a high performance, which is what the 2.5pi was, high spec saloon car now would cost about 55 grand. I had one of the 2.5s and apart from the 20mpg it would hold its head up even now. Overdrive as standard, light weight aluminium wheels and nuts, aero dynamic shape. Maybe one of the most comfortable cars I've ever driven, a cavernous load area with the seats down and would hold its own against my friends porsche 924, essentially an audi 80 sport. Britain's best effort at a family car at any point in history.
yes bang on ive owned 11 triumph 2.5 most pi s inc estates and i own a gen mk1 pi est today
Just don't have a serious crash...
That 2.0 six was sweet and smooth. A friend who owned a 200 TC enjoyed placing a coin (think it was a 2 bob bit) on the engine and revving it up - the coin never moved. That particular car had a carb setup which was perfectly dialled in. As for the "futuristic" equipment, as some here have mentioned, cars elsewhere had many of these features already. The UK was so far behind it was embarrassing, and one more reason why the car industry here went belly up by the late 70's - helped along by incessant strikes.
I owned a Dolomite - it had twin SU carbs - had a feeling those had twin strombergs?? Yes - when they were correctly balanced they were a smooth running engine until it overheated!!!
As I often remind my grandkids, even back in the 30s we used to drive cars with MORE features than this and they were certainly more reliable and cheap to run than the rust buckets people drive nowadays
This car began life as a 2.5PI, which makes sense since it was converted to EFI. Triumph 2.5PI estates were also converted to AWD, and fitted with ABS, in the early 1970s. Amusingly the big Triumphs were extremely advanced for what was a faily modestly priced family sedan. Fuel injection, over drive transmission, front disc brakes and fully independent suspension was pretty advanced for the late 1960s
Two bob is 10p.
Funny how nowadays you’re not allowed be distracted by your phone but a huge computer screen on the dash board you’ve to scroll through for control settings is acceptable
Yes. On my current car, I have to press a button, rotate a knob, while looking at the screen, until the cursor is on the right line, press again, rotate back until I am on "Return" and press again, just to turn the air-con on or off. On my previous car, I just had to press one button. It's all very distracting and dangerous, when you just want the air-con for a minute to stop the screen misting up on the motorway!
@@V8VORLICH some day Mikey will get a phone where he doesn’t expect it.
Buttons are expensive to make, a screen is cheap. It's all about cutting costs and corners. Same reason they replaced th instrument cluster with a screen. It's not because it's better, it's because it's cheaper.
Used to love my Triumph. Always one of the most beautiful cars.
Fascinating review of features of a Triumph test car. This production had it all: bleak English weather, presenter wearing camel coloured shirt and brown cardigan, not to mention the black horn-rimmed specs.
Everything shown here we have in our cars. But this is 1971 and he said to expect this in 10 years or so....this wasn't available in cars in the early 1980s (perhaps on high end but it certainly wasn't standard). Some things were available to all cars in the 1980s but most were not.
Putting aside the fact that your comment is so blatantly self-contradictory, in short, you're saying the prediction was fulfilled.
The prediction was not that all features would be 'standard' - or even 'extra cost options' - on ALL vehicles.
JOOI - how much more than '10 years' is '10 years or so'? Ask any politician or sales person.
Presenting style way ahead of his time
Burke.
This car is amazing! It's so high-tech and futuristic. I want a car with sen-soars
LOVE JAMES BURKE!!! Thank You!!!
If I’m not mistaken, those fault sensors operate on the same principle as the VCOs (Voltage Controlled Oscillators) in an analogue synthesiser.
And fifty years later everything he describes seems to be standard equipment on even the cheapest automobiles.
and mid rage cars cost £55,000
God you are sharp!
@@mariemccann5895 Almost as sharp as you are!
@@etoineschrdlu9382 PMSL Just seen your profile picture. Absolutely perfect.
@@mariemccann5895 Hope you had a roll of paper towels handy.
And now it’s the sensors that sometimes fail😂
We need sensors to monitor the sensors.
@@logicn.reasoning9744 But what if those sensors fail? We'll need more sensors to sense those sensors.
I prefer the cars from the 30s to 50s I used to drive. They had steel bumpers, rather than plastic shrouds that cost a fortune to replace if gently biffed, no computer system to put the car into limp mode and old cars were easy to repair by the owner without shelling out a grand a time. Also one could get to engine components without having to dismantle half of it first. 😄
This one is not too bad: ruclips.net/video/JQ01zpzk63g/видео.html
This is much much better than the 2023 Model of Suzuki Mehran Car available in Pakistan.
On the other hand, that's probably actual wood bits in that car.
BTW love seeing James Burke. His mindblowing show Connections was my favorite when I was a kid.