Rob and Mike,
I'm quoting an older British gentlemen I worked with back in the
mid-70's. I found him working under the bonnet one day at lunch.
Asking what was broken, he asked did I mind getting my hands dirty.
I received a lesson in the fine British art of Tinkering.
James stated that due to the British males love of Tinkering, so much
tinkering factor was built into each vehicle. That on a weekly basis,
one would poke their head under the bonnet, and see what would need
tightening. As to the poor performance, some designers feared too much
speed and power would cause too many to be injured.
As we finished tinkering, one of our warehousemen came back from lunch.
VERY loudly came back from lunch with his 57 Chevy. James said he always
wanted American iron, BUT his wife found it unseemly and inappropriate.
I think he traded wife for a Corvette.
Pamela Bauman
datsunmike wrote:
> 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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