Modern car magazines should never write articles on classic British cars.
--They rarely get it right or miss the point, altogether.
Received the Jan. "Automobile" today.Was pleased to see that it included an
article on British cars. --Made a cup of coffee and settled in to read
"Unreliably Reliable" - A "reliability rally" test of a Lotus Ilan, BJ8, MGA
1600 MK 2, TR4A, Triumph Dolomite Sprint, Morris Minor pickup truck, and Ford
Cortina. ...........Oh Brother.
The first three quarters of the article were spent tongue lashing the British
motor industry of the 1950s and 60s, for poor reliability and blaming that
period for the lack of contemporary British owned automobile mfgrs. Then for
some reason large gobs of text were dedicated to Federal express for providing
transport for some of the cars to the starting point in Michigan.
Further, there were really no decent "car pictures" and really no text
allocated to the actual driving of the cars.
The only examples given of the "unreliability" of these cars during the whole
rally was a holed piston on a severely "overtweaked" Mini Cooper (a car not
even in the test), and a "smoking problem" on the Lotus Ilan S4 - because the
author had not inserted the oil dipstick in all the way when taking a reading,
and overfilled the engine oil by a quart!!! ---Still not even a remark that
the cars had been remarkably reliable. The only mention of the actual driving
was how we all have forgotten how cars of the period "smell" badly of exhaust,
and how they had had trouble learning how to engage the overdrive smoothly in
the Healey, Dolomite, and TR4......Idiots! --They described how one staffer
complained that driving in overdrive in the MGA (no overdrive) made the car
feel "hotter". --Turns out he was flipping the heater blower switch..........
Grrrrrr.
Very disappointing. It is hard for me to imagine an article on classic cars
handled this badly. I'd have rather that they didn't try at all.
David W. Jones
'62 Mk II BT7 tricarb
Cumberland, RI USA
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