Greg asks...
{with all the comments (mostly negative) over the last few months over
{Italian cars, specifically FIATs, I was wondering why?
Religion. And language. After awhile you get to know the language,
slang and nuances of a particular style of car. Here, we are fluent in
british-cars. Eye-talian-cars is a whole other language that is
probably equally interesting, but it's also different enough to require
a major effort to learn and master in detail. This is british-cars, need
we say more?
It's also a question of focus. When there a number of different kinds
of cars around, it can get hard to concentrate on any one. Up until a
week ago, I had 1 british, 1 italian, 1 japanese and 2 swedish cars here
to play^H^H^H^Hwork with. (I can't believe it either. It's always
easier to buy 'em than sell 'em). I found that it was hard to focus in
on any one car as a whole since they tend to be so different from each
other. While it was fun to work on the different cars, I also started
feeling like I was suffering from some kind of multiple personality
disorder.
{ - X/1.9 Bertone : a 128 class mid engined car with 'retracts' that
{actually work (unlike my TR7s) and a targa top?
Been there, done that, just sold it to some kid with more dollars than
sense. It was one of those deals that you can't pass up: for want of a
$50 part, someone moving was selling a $1200 car for $250. But I could
never build enough interest in it do so anything with it other than fix
and beautify it up, then sell it. I didn't have any desire to drive it,
though it shined up nice and handled beautifully. The mechanics were
just as quirky as a TR-7 (and one of the retracts didn't work) and it
just felt like a tin-can, unlike the solid 7's and 8's I've been in.
And the damn things are way underpowered compared to a 7, much less an
8. At 6'3" I fit in a 7, while the X1/9 was rather cozy even with the
top off. And a targa top just isn't the same as a convertible top. I
could go on and on... Rust? Did I mention RUST???
/\ Lawrence Buja Climate and Global Dynamics Division
\_][ southern@ncar.ucar.edu National Center for Atmospheric Research
\_________________________Boulder,_Colorado___80307-3000__________
|