Our childhood/teen experiences sure do shape our automobile tastes.
I too drove the family car - a full size van. I figure I save half the cost
of the car in gas alone and the insurance is very reasonable. I figured
that I spend more on coffee than I do for the Spit (This was my reasoning
anyway - we don't add in parts cost.)
Ken
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Hargreave Mawson [mailto:OC@46thFoot.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 12:21 PM
To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: NEW TOPIC - Why did you buy your Spit?
In article <B4B2CBE518F8EB46A7286FFD05AF9ACDB6AE4C@kent2kexchange>,
"St.John, Kenneth" <ken.stjohn@hexcel.com> writes
>Driving to work today in the sun I was thinking about my Spitfire and MGs
>and why we are attracted to one car or another and why.
>I'm curious as to how others got bit!
Excellent question -and hopefully the start of a fascinating thread.
My Story
^^^^^^^^
My story starts in about 1977. A friend of mine at school was
absolutely fanatically obsessed with Spitfires. Me, I thought the
lines were unappealing, and that the Spit looked like an insect, with
head/thorax/abdomen - yuck! We were both ten years old at the time.
By the time we were twelve, Triumph had announced that the Spitfire was
to be discontinued. My friend was distraught, and begged and pleaded
with his father to buy him one to put in store until he could drive it.
Eventually his father (who obviously earned far too much money) agreed,
and, at the age of twelve-and-a-half, my best friend, David Jenkyn,
became the owner of one of the last 1500s ever sold.
I thought this was pretty cool.
Shimmy forward twenty-one years, and you find a different Mike. A Mike
who appreciated the Michelotti design, and who sneered at the boring
lines of MGs and BMW Z3s. A Mike who had experienced classic British
motoring with the likes of Morris Minor PWR 920E and Sunbeam Stiletto
JGO 212K (both of which he reluctantly parted with many years before).
Mike was now married with a child, and his wife had just gone out and
bought a brand new "family car". Well, hey! *I* didn't need to
provide the "family car" anymore - I could buy something I actually
liked, rather than something "practical". I picked up a copy of "North
Thames Auto-Trader" and started looking through the "Classics" section.
Guess what? The cheapest car in there was also the one nearest to me,
and it was a Spitfire 1500. The rest, as they say, is history...
ATB
--
Mike
Ellie - 1963 White Herald 1200 Convertible GA125624 CV
Carly - 1977 Inca Yellow Spitfire 1500 FM105671
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