>
>
> Alittle more on very fast cars: The Ford RS 200 (Brit made group B rally car)
> got second place in the open rally division at the 69th annual Pike's Peak
> Hillclimb. It took a mear 12 mins 9.9 secs to get to the top of the 14,110
> foot mountain. Apparently it was the second quickest time ever for a Brit
>car.
> Now lets see a miata do it that fast (sorry I counldn't resist it).
> Am I the only idiot working on Christmas eve????
> Cheers DW
No idiot, it is two of us :)
I haven't been following the hill's scores lately but
Groupe B Audis and Peugeots dominated it the past few years
that I can recall, one of the years the RS200 made it up there too.
F1 used to be an all European sport until Honda got in the middle.
That is between the Europeans and the Championship.
The last few years Toyota and Mitsubishi attacked the Rally scene
after Group B was banned.
From what I 've been informed Lancia quit for 92 and the only
Deltas will be private entries with a few less helicopters running
on top of them (that is what wins rallies, not skill and car alone).
I hate the Elan look-alike too, specially that green edition.....
....yeeeaaaackk....:)
I don't purticularlu like the new Elan either.
Apart from tastes and nationalistic prefernces though we have to
face reality. As long as those companies make money and develop
auto technology, the cheapest and the best toys will come from
there. Ten years ago AUDI designed a car out of old VW military
contract research, and went out rallying killing anything that
had power in less than four wheels.
Within a couple of years, Rally enthousiasts dreamed of ever
becoming the happy owners of a Quattro.
How many Quattro coupes have you seen out in the street?
Toyota made a logically priced All-Trac and Mazda a 323 GTX
even closer to the budget of the average guy who climbs on trees
to see a Rally race (not in the US so much as in Europe).
Mitsubishi has the GSX (TAlon Tsi AWD) and Galant VR4.
Lancia makes the Delta Integrale HF for the pockets of executives
and we here in the US never see it anyway.
Let me bring things into perspective for British cars.
Lotus made cars resembling function and looks of thoroughbred
race cars and sold them for the salary of a workingman who liked
nothing more than a fast ride. Then it started focusing in an
other market (leather seats, airconditioners, power sun-visors etc)
and the workingman was left to buy Miatas instead of Esprits.
If a company opens up today and makes something close to
an updated Europa thay can only sell it as a kit.
If they get too cheap the image of the company lives next to YUGO.
They may forget the racing advertisemnt all together because
it costs more to race once in a FIA Rally or F1 than it costs
to built the factory to produce cars in.
If they make 500,000 $ cars with 16cyl 4 turbo engines and have the
budget of a Chase credit line they may do well in the market
they are aimed for.
What I am trying to say is that we are used car-lovers of
an era that past and we should stay there and not confront
today's reality. We should ignore today and stay in the past
which we feel comfortable at.
I don't care of going to the hill (Pike's Peak) and see
Toyotas and Mitsubishis on top, with a mainframe adjusting
their injection and steering geometries.
I am proud to be the ultimate Solex doctor and blind those
plastic can drivers with my polished bumpers.
And an other thing, we are not that many to attract attention
and some of us not so fanatic and we go out and buy Miatas
because we have no time to deal with Lucas' idiosyncracies
on a daily basis.
Faithfully yours :)
Kosmas
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