Quintessential British Sports Car

[ecamiel]

Elan content from the NYT

Cars reflect the culture and roads of the country that made them.
Chasing the Quintessential British Sports Car[
RICHARD S. CHANG

American sports cars are built like bulldogs. Italian sports cars are sexy. Japanese sports cars are manga and robotic. Describing the essence of a British sports car is more elusive.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04 ... /?emc=eta1

[mark030358]

Brilliant article. Even the readers comments at the end make for a good read...
Now where did I put my Mustang

[Fred Talmadge]

My comment would be to paraphrase the one one comment "The quintessential English sports car experience was having it fail at OPPORTUNE moments"

[Chancer]

I learned something from the article (Peter Stevens contribution):

The MG and Austin Healey, and all of those companies, made sports cars that anybody who could afford a car could afford to choose a sports car, which I thought was very nice. It was very simple and accessible for anybody.?

That?s important?

?It is to me,? he said. ?That?s something we used to do so well. Because something like the Triumph TR2 would?ve been cheaper to buy than the saloon car that Triumph made.?


As my paper round money was only enough to buy and sell pushbikes I didnt know the relative prices of cars but its logical that a TR2 should cost less than a Standard Vanguard, a spitfire less than a Herald, a Frogeye less than an A35/40 etc, what is ironic is that had they known that they could charge a premium for supplying less, indeed should have done so to create desirabillity they would have been much more profitable and more of them may have survived.

[pereirac]

People who think British sports cars were unreliable and fragile have never owned a modern French car... At least the cars from the 60s and 70s were relatively easy and cheap to fix...

[Davidb]

Excellent article with not a mention of "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" which is guaranteed to make me roll my eyes and turn the page...