Rob,
I have been subscribing to American car magazines since I had a full head of
hair and for the most part they always pan American cars but I still buy the
magazines. I guess the most telling line in the article is the pentultimate
sentence when the author basically admitted that the poor performance and
reliability of British cars caused their demise in the American market,
especially after the 240 was released.
FWIW, I always liked Brit cars and their look appealed to me - it still does,
but their reliability and driveability leaves something to be desired. One of
my favorite cars in the 60s was the TR4/250 and I recently had an opportunity
to drive one, and it was cumbersome. Their looks belie the way they handle and
accelerate.
I looked at the review of the '95 MG RV8 and lo and behold it was an an exact
copy of a 75 MGB with a few changes made. I guess that's the crux of the
problem with the British car industry and one of the reasons it failed - the
lack of money and desire to refine and develope new cars.
I'm still going to buy a Spit or MGB in the not too distant future but I'll
not rebuild it stock but then again my Roadster's not stock either.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: RoadsterGB@aol.com
To: datsunmike@nyc.rr.com ; datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2001 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: Rob Beddington's Car
Hi
Thanks Mike - the trouble with these guys is they're very afraid of
alienating their readership - I guess they have more subscribers who own
Sunbeam Alpines than those with Datsun Roadsters - with that in mind I thought
it was a great article.
Coincidentally I have today received the transparencies from C&SC - they
include some nice angles not shown in the mag. I'll scan them at work early
next week and add them to the site v.soon, along with some nice transparencies
of the same car in a Practical Classics article around 5 years ago.
There's been a little stink caused by one of the datsun Z photos in the same
mag profiling Fourways, the well known Datsun Z/Aston Martin restorers.
Apparently, the firm told Mick Walsh, the Editor in Chief of C&SC, that the Z
was a genuine Fairlady Z432-R (the super rare twin cam racing version of the
very rare Z432) and he quoted this in the mag. These are as rare as rocking
horse poo in Japan, let alone anywhere else in the world. I'd previously heard
that Fourways had a twin cam S-20 engine kicking around for some while, and
the donor car, a bog standard Fairlady ZL 2.0, which they've had for even
longer. Replica or fake, it's not quite what it said on the tin and it's upset
the guy who is having it built. He's a great guy who would never dream of
passing it off as the genuine article. Egg on face of probably the best known
Z restorers in the UK.
Rob
The Fairlady Roadster Register
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