[Tigers] survivors versus restored

[rande]

When I brought up the NY Times article about the survivor versus restored debate,
I really only posted link information, not starting a debate anew.

The pleasant surprise is that a lot of points of view were expressed, with justification
for either course of action. The bottom line, as said before, is that it's an
owners choice as to what will give them the most enjoyment, dependability, and
safety.

With that, I'll submit again the link that Tod Brown included for Andy Rooney's
daughters blog about her dads Tiger, with a few bits of new information I learned
since the blog was published.

http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Tiger-Tiger-Driving-Andy-Rooneys-Car-6527

Because I think many of us had heard about the car for at least the last 20
years, almost a folk legend story,and just assumed that Andy was using the car
daily, the notion that it had to undergo a complete restoration seemed possibly
a little unnecessary.

After thinking about how much time the car spent in the garage at his summer
home, his daughter thinks it might have been closer to nearly 20 years in the
unheated garage, and with the top and windows down.

Add to that the fact that Andy used the Tiger as his 'station' car, i.e. mostly
drove it from his Connecticut home to the commuter rail train station, a 10
minute ride, and took the train the rest of the way into Manhattan. And according
to his daughter, the Tiger usually spent its time outside on the driveway, not
in the garage. And, again, this was not sunny and dry Los Angeles or Sydney,
so the Tiger was exposed to many years of cold, and inclement weather parked
outside before its stay in the summer house garage.

Emily told me that the amount of papers she found relating to the Tiger was
shocking. According to her, he threw almost nothing out. I hope at the very
least she can bring some of that when we have the next New England Tiger meet.


Rande