Agreed, he drove it into a lake, no car would start after that, especially not a modern car, not a chance in hell.
In fact after Jeremy saw the car he had a stunned look on his face and after saying no way so many times said in 47 years he'd never been speechless.
The reason why he was stunned, the engine drew water into the cylinders and actually survived:
Wikipedia: Hydrolock said:
Hydrolock (short for either hydraulic lock or hydrostatic lock) is a condition of an internal combustion engine in which an incompressible liquid has been introduced into its cylinder(s), resulting in the immobilization of the engine's pistons. The liquid causing this malfunction is often water, hence the prefix "hydro-". Internal combustion engines must compress air to work efficently and this works because gases can be compressed. Liquids do not compress so if a volume of liquid greater than the volume of the combustion chamber at it's minimum (top of the piston's stroke) enters the combustion chamber then the piston cannot complete it's travel. Either the engine must stop rotating or something must give. The result is often a bent connecting rod or sometimes a cracked cylinder head or block.
That is a testament to the strength of that engine, it held up to that kind of stress and that after running for 44 years, it didn't even look slow at all or smoke everywhere, truly amazing if you ask me.
That is also the main reason I still love Opel, their engines are built to last, there are PLENTY of Opel Kadett's and Opel Astra's still running around with their old motors and many people salvage 30 year old 20XE motors to put into their newer Corsa's, those motors last a long time when they are looked after, not to mention that the Opel motors are universally highly tunable. In the UK and here in SA many people produce more than 200kW (atw) with both Opel 1600 and 2000 cc motors.
Sign up with Google