From: AnalogMike@aol.com <AnalogMike@aol.com>
>I see you are no longer driving SAABs.
>At least you are progressing psychologically.
No, I just didn't fit with the so-called "progress" SAAB started in the late
sixties. I have never been a fan of the SAAB cars with four cylinders in a
row. They were too complicated. I liked the fact that the 3-bangers and
Ford V4 cars were so bloody primitive. They were light, had decent
suspension geometry, and were tough as nails. They also responded very well
to the ham-fisted modifications of an impoverished, autocross-crazed
20-year-old.
The legendary mechanic Dan Jones told me over a cold one at the home of
Dutch Edwards around 1970, "I think the golden age of SAAB is over". I've
never really disagreed with that. The cars got complicated, fussy and
expensive. With the last Sonett in the mid-seventies, my interest in the
new wares from Trollhaaten faded. The trolls were not in charge there any
more. The bean-counters were. And the bean-counters said that to make more
money, they needed to sell expensive cars, because they never were going to
sell a lot of cars anyway. So the ethic that made a bunch of cheap, light
and ridiculously strengthened cars for the telephone company, and actually
was willing to sell them cheap to car freaks in the USA (you can have any
color you want, as long as it is Swedish Telephone Orange) was gone. Turbos
for yuppies was the new paradigm. That's just not me.
Phil "Why the HELL didn't I buy a Lotus Seven when they were cheap?" Ethier
Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Chev Suburban
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"If I can do it, it's not art" - Red Green
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