Hi LBC netters,
I was taken by comments of Ray Gibbons and Chris Ball on London Ont. (a
city pretty close to ourselves here in Windsor). Taken me some time to
reply since I read this on digest. What struck me was the issue of those
hidden brit cars "sleepers".
Some of you may enjoy the Craig Singhaus lighthearted item on the TV
programme, Motorweek. A while ago he had one that focussed on Michigan
and on the fun and beautiful cars that only appear in summer. People
drive terrible snow cars through our glorious winter and reserve their
special cars for summer. I wonder how many fine british cars languish in
some back garage forgotten by owners who just don't get around to getting
them out. This fate is perhaps less true of sportscars whose
characteristics seem to belong to summer (except when some keep their
hoods closed - eh Chris?). But, there certainly are a great number of
saloon/sedans that sleep through the season.
An illustration of my point is how I discovered that there were nearly 12
Wolseley/Austin six cylinders (Austin Westminster/Wolseley 6/110) in
Toronto alone. I certainly didn't see these on the road. My specialist
spares supplier for my Wolseley (based in Wales) was kind enough to give
me the names of his Canadian customers in Ontario. On contacting them, I
found each was friendly, quite normal, but largely unaware that anyone
else had this shadowy and sinister interest in big Farinas.
I always think it is rather sad that the saloon variant of our favourite
sports cars which, in their day were far more numerous than their exotic
siblings, seem to be forgotten. Some examples might be: The Triumph
Herald/Vitesse/2000 - all great cars. (One example not to mention is the
disasterous Austin Marina which used the MGB 1.8 litre).
There is a good side to declining numbers of our favourite cars - most
meets and clubs are extremely welcoming to all models. I belong to a
mini club locally.
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Andrew Templer Answerphone: 519-253-4232 Ext 3159
Telefax: 519-973-7073 EMAIL: andrew@uwindsor.ca
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