I use my two cars about equally. Different characters, one with turbo, one with hardtop, equal fun.
Being of a certain age, my first cars (and my current NA) were allowed to have the indicator stalk on the right which allowed Brits to indicate with the right hand and change gear with the left hand. Then along came the EU which said we must standardise with them, resulting in UK cars having the indicator stalk on the left/wrong side, and in my having an NB with the stalk on the wrong side and an NA with it on the correct side.
Just in case anyone else finds this irksome, note that the Japanese, who drive on the correct side of the road, as we do, have never kowtowed to the EU, and have kept their indicators on the correct side.
So if you want to do your own version of standardisation on an NB or later car, get yourself a stalk, clock spring and surround kit from a JDM car. It fits straight on to your EU-bastardised steering column. And now you can change gear and indicate at the same time again, just like the old days!
However, SWMBO was forever knocking (breaking) the green lens off the end of the indicator stalk in her woody mini traveller simply by getting in or out of the car (apparently). I still don’t know quite how she did it, but I lost count of how many I glued up and then bought new for.
Another nice to have was horn on the end of the light stalk (not that mini) so you could simultaneously flash and beep to warn of approach without removing hands from the wheel while doing the emergency stop.
I’m not aware of any mandate on indicator stork position other than “only that it be visible and operable by the driver.”
When the major motor companies like Ford determined that cutting down on variants would save them a lot of money, things became “standard.”
I would stop reading the tabloids.
On my 1934 Austin I have to stick my arm out because my right arm is the indicator.
At night I wear a reflective wrist band.
Car was never fitted with side windows either.
At least it has functional brake lights.
It makes life interesting when indicating and changing gear at the same time !!
A well known fact is that most BMWs do not have working indicators, some AUDIs also have non working indicators.
My Dad’s 1956/7 Morris Isis had handbrake and gear lever on the floor to the right of the front bench seat.
One night in the 1970s thieves broke into the garage, managed to start the car, but could not discover how to drive it away.
I sold it as part of his estate with about 350,000 miles on the clock (ie on its fourth lap according to his notes) for 500 Zimbucks in 1996.
It looked a lot like this immaculate one seen at Silverstone classic.
Correct; there is no EU regulation. It’s been imagind by the OP.
Next up; I keep burning my legs walking past cars with near side exhaust tailpipes. When are Daily mail readers going to do something about this outrage?
And you don’t indicate and change gear at the same time.
Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre
I’d rather not be behind the OP as he suddenly slows without using brakes in that split second between foot and finger.
As far as I’m concerned we should have had ‘proper’ indicators years before they started appearing on Fords , which seemed very racy at the time. And we should have done what Sweden did on 5 September 1967- driving on the right, like nearly everybody else . But no , we blunder on , talking about our daft imperial measures but referring to the cubic capacity of our cars , not in cubic inches like the USA , but in cc… Insane
Having owned two NBFLs - one a UK car with the indicator controls on the left UK-style, and the other a JDM import with the indicators on the right, I much prefer them on the right JDM-style. I also prefer the 6 O’clock dials as fitted in the JDM NBFLs too.
This is one of those things you can’t blame on the EU. Hyundai and Kia cars have their indicator stalks on the other side of the steering column to the majority which can be entertaining if you have one of them as well as another make and need to change from one car to the other from time to time.
So i guess the NB is a UK spec mx5? get a set of stalks off a NB import and adapt the wiring so it works, easy enough if it irritates that much bud.
M-m
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