Gavin from Australia asks whether the Rover SD-1 Vitesse isn't a sports car.
No, if I'm not mistaken, it's a fast saloon. The SD1 is based on
the car called the 3500 in the US (not the 3.5L version of the 2000
and 2000TC, but the later one). The engine is certainly sporting,
as MGBs, TR8s, and a number of specials have certainly proven, but
unless there's some really exciting Australian-import-only vehicle
called the Rover SD-1 Vitesse that's very different from the photos
I've seen in British car magazines, it's not a sports car. It was a
successful rally car, but so was the Volvo 544. :-) (And no, I
don't intend to start the "What is a sports car?" battle; I'll just
say that of the three cars I presently own, the MGB is one, the Volvo
122S "Amazon" isn't, and I'm not sure about the 280ZX...)
The more interesting question out of all this is, so what are TVR and
Morgan anyway, chopped liver? Quite the contrary -- but they (and
to some extent Lotus, and are you guys on-line yet? :-) point to a
continued demand for *good* examples of what BPL wrecked. The
crucial difference is that TR and MG sold in quantities, and at
prices, that made them affordable to someone who was willing to
give up a little practicality (a back seat, a watertight roof, and
a trunk) in exchange for a *feel* -- more so even than sheer
performance, these cars are emotions in metal, rubber, and occasionally
glass-fibre (and wood, for you Malvern faithful out there). Lotus is
(well, as long as I've called it glass-fibre instead of fiberglass, I
suppose I should say "Lotus *are*") an interim step from the level
of production at Morgan and TVR to the volume of BPL in their heyday.
So I suppose this should really be titled not the death of the British
sports car -- I could buy, now off the dealer's lot today, a brand-new
Lotus Esprit Turbo -- but the demise of the volume-produced, available,
affordable, beloved British roadsters that most of us on the list know,
understand, and either own, used to own, or plan to own one day.
--Scott "I want my MGD" Fisher
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