Heh. Just this morning I was reflecting that, in a pinch, it's
probably better to drive an English car to eat Italian food than
it would be to drive an Italian car to eat English food... That
being the case (ahem), here's something I've been meaning to pass
on to both of these lists (you know who you are) for a long time
now. This apparently came from an article in an old copy of
"Playboy" magazine that a friend found and sent to me.
--Scott "Then there's the old In heaven/In hell joke" Fisher
------- Forwarded Message
Oil was what they didn't understand at MG. They forgot that
oil is a liquid. And it dribbled out of all the holes with
which the MG crank case, transmission housing, and differential
were supplied for reasons of weight reduction. MG engineers even
invented refillable shock absorbers so that oil could leak out of
those, too.
What the Alfa's builders couldn't understand was electricity.
Italian electrical engineers must go to college someplace where
they teach the periodic table with earth, fire, and water as the
only elements. There was a medieval Catholic flvor to the
ignition on that car. The Alfa wouldn't start if I ate anything
before taking Communion or during Lent or any other time without
special dispensation from the Pope.
Unlike the English and the Italians, German sports - car
manufacturers understood all the mechanical aspects of sports - car
building. It was people they didn't understand. Dr. Ferdinand
Porsche surely assumed that what people like to do is drive backward
off curves at high speeds and hit trees. He designed his early
Porsches so that they did that better than any other automobile
on earth.
------- End of Forwarded Message
|