Anyone who ever owned, or still owns, a British car from the 60's through the early 90's, has experienced the unreliable tendencies of those cars. As a teenager in the early 70's, I recall some of the best looking sports cars on the road being MG's, Austin Healy, Triumph TR6's, and the Jaguar XKE. As great looking as these cars were, they all had reputations for being very unreliable. It was never unusual to see a British car sitting on the side of the road with the hood up, and its owner tinkering with something on the engine. The one common factor all these cars had, was they were equipped with British made Lucas brand electronics. I'm not critizing Lucas electronics, as I never owned one of those cars, but I sure worked on enough of them in my late teens.

I don't know if Aston Martin used Lucas electronic's back in the day, but I know when Ford bought Aston Martin, they began using Bosch electronics, which is used in most cars today.....and are extremely reliable. Obviously cars have come a long way since the 70's and 80's, and the Aston Martin is state of the art in every way. British cars today are without question much more reliable than they've ever been. As exotic cars go, it's nice to know Aston Martin is using reliable electronic components.

 

I have a T-shirt that has the Lucas Logo on the Front with the words, "Lucas Prince of Darkness" on the back is a 3-position Lucas switch--Dim, Flicker, Off. Funny stuff, but not if you owned a car with the dreaded "Lucas Electrics". At one time saw a bottle of "Lucas Smoke" for sale on e-bay. So if your "electrics quit and smoked" you could replace the smoke--clever.

 

Had more than my share of Lucas horror stories, as well. I suppose it made the cards more endearing and eccentric, like a crazy Aunt.

Would love the T-shirt!!

 

I hear you... you certainly develop a 'relationship' with your car though... a well placed thump that will sometimes solve a recalcitrant electronic component... or when the ignition barrell is failing, if you get the angle on the key juuuust right....

You also learn the meaning of 'home' and 'away' toolkits...

 

Why you need this "Lucas Smoke kit": Electrical Theory by Joseph Lucas
Positive ground depends upon proper circuit functioning, the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work; we know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of the electrical system, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing. When, for example, the smoke escapes from an electrical component (i.e., say, a Lucas voltage regulator), it will be observed that the component stops working. The function of the wire harness is to carry the smoke from one device to another; when the wire harness "springs a leak", and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterwards. Starter motors were frowned upon in British Automobiles for some time, largely because they consume large quantities of smoke, requiring very large wires.