Laws of British Sports Cars

[Wolseley Hornet]

All very distressing - but true!

I think the common experience,underlying all this disappointment and resentment, is that we've all enjoyed the unforgettable experience of British sports cars of the 50s and 60s.

The problem is that we were all carried along by the folklore surrounding the names -MG, Jaguar, Austin Healey,Triumph and the rest - forgetting that the reputations of these names had been made in the 30s and 40s, when they were all independent companies run by talented people of creativity and skill.

Sadly, by the 50s, they had all been engulfed by corporate giants; and whilst American, Japanese, and even German corporations were run by professionally trained managers, ours were run by bloody idiots who had been Generals - with no idea how to deal with any group of workers, let alone some of the poisonous Trotskyites that had infiltrated the trades unions at that time.

So instead of concentrating on quality, and customer satisfaction, these fools took the view that "Johnny foreigner should think himself jolly lucky that we allow him to buy our cars at all - not be moaning about not being able to get spare parts all the time!"

Then they were surprised when the Datsun 240Z all but extinguished E-types in USA.

Hey ho! At least we've got lots of horror stories to tell our grandchildren.


David.

[ElSecundo]

Horror stories, sure, but there's always that love/hate relationship with a British sports car. When it's running right, it's a great experience. The other 95% of the time is spent in fond remembrance of the few times it ran properly. :lol:

Case in point -- the Mini is out right now for some carburetor work and a new throw-out bearing. It'll be gone for a total of 10 days, and I'll get a good day or two out of it until the next thing goes berserk.

[VenturaAlfa]

They left out one very important law.

"The further you are from a repair station and/or a tow truck the more likely you are to break down. This increases in likelihood if you are by your self with very few other cars on the road. If you find yourself on a desolate road, in the night time, alone, near a house that looks like it should have been in the Rocky Horror Picture show beware, your vehicle is about to break down and/or the lights are going to cease to function"

Ventura Alfa

[ElSecundo]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

That didn't happen to me, but having read it, I consider myself very lucky. That's exactly what I should have expected to happen.

There's another corollary to the above laws...

If you are broken down and stranded, an ancient VW Beetle that belonged to Pharaoh Ramesses II will come putting by in perfect tune with head lights, taillights and wipers all working at once.

[Ember]

It's all such a common tale. But again, remember how good they are when they are running well.

There's still got to be something to British engineering and motor sport. Most of the F1 teams are based there, after all.

[DAVE]

I certainly have to agree with the comment about the owners manual. I wanted to remove the
hood (bonnet) and went to the section titled removing the hood. It said to "detach hood from all
fitments, fold as illustrated, and stow in boot". Huh?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Isn't the hood the convertible top? Or did we switch back and forth from Brit speak to American one more time than I think?

[TsgtRet]

[Ember]

[Florida_Slotter]

Sadly I have been a victim of British Sports Cars and Lord of Darkness Lucas.

You REALLY need to post a warning on posts like this . . . . . it took me quite awhile to clean the coffee off of my monitor.

Enjoyed the memories.

Thank you.