>
> Mike Tobin Sez:
>
> The wrinkle is the "Dark Ages" the period between 73 (when the smog
> rules got really tuff) and ~'84 (when computer controlled FI made fun
> cars possible again). NOthing of real interest was built during this
> period and the guys who'd buy cars from this period when they hit forty
> probably won't want them (would you restore a Mustang II?).
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ahem.
> I was in high school during this period, and we were as car-crazy as
> any other twentieth century grouping one would care to name. The
> fallacy that nothing of interest was produced then is quite commonly
> held, and totally wrong. Should I name a few examples?
(a good list follows with some stuff I'd forgotten)
Aran, you're right of course. As soon as I hit the "s" key I knew the
"nothing of interest..." was an overstatement and I hope I didn't
offentd anyone with '70s iron. I really shoulda known better -
inaddition to the more trad stuff littering our driveway there's a nifty
'79 Spit owned byu the junior member of the clan (maybe he'll turn out
alright afterall).
The basic point is still valid I think. The twentyandsthirtysomethings
that would, in the normal course of events, turn the cars of their
highschool days from cheap Old Cars into expensive Classic Cars don't
have the variety to chose from that their elders did (or now their
youngers for that matter), and much of what they do have is really left
over from the 60s (of the Brit Stuff only the TR7/8 and the Jensen
Healey are "new generation"). If movies, mtv and tv commercials aimed
at this group are any indication, they lust after the same stuff us "old
farts" do.
> But in a way, this is kind of neat. A lot of the cars listed above can still
> be bought and enjoyed by enthusiasts of average means, (excepting, of course,
> the Ferraris), can be tinkered on with cheap and simple tools, and can be
> driven without paranoid financial fears or feelings of mechanical inadequacy.
> So let us conspire to spread this fallacy, knowing that we will look upon
> this period with a sense of nostalgia in the future, remembering back to
> our high-school days when a whole bunch of neat and cheap cars were available
> from several eras; and that computer-driven jelly-beans were just a vague
> forebodance of the future.
I like you're positive outlook -I'll do my part to keep this
"misconception" alive (a Citroen SM is on my "Ones That Got Away" list
and now that the Super Seven, Plus 4 and XK-Anything are out of reach I
need something (automotive) to lust after).
MIke Tobin
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