I am writing to what Richard wrote to Gary who wrote to Scott....
The solution to your dream is to get a Riley. I have been driving (and my
wife would say towing) Rileys since the mid seventies. It was the first
English car to have rack and pinion steering. It used torsion bars. It would
do the "ton" off the show room floor. It new it cost more than a cadillac.
It was powered by a screaming 2 1/2 litre 4 banger.
If you want attention, I can't drive into a parking lot anywhere that I don't
get
strangers asking about it. Even at stoplights, drivers ask me "What year Rolls
is
that?" Since it has a pull starter, you wont have to worry about car-jackers.
Let them have the car. The car-jacker won't be able to drive it.
But best of all. There is a large support group in Scotland/England that
remanufacture alot of the parts. They have a large wharehouse full of "donor"
cars that have been disassembled.
The best of all possible worlds. A great styled sedan, sports car handling, and
a very responsive parts supplier. Even the Japanese can`t do that. I can get
parts from the UK (ordering vi FAX) in 10-14 days. I can't get that type of
respone
from brand M or brand BV.
And they take credit cards, so I get the bank exchange rate when converting
dollars
to pounds.
Rileys are priced about where Aston-Martins were before they were "discovered".
They were priced higher than Jags, before Jags were "discovered". In otherwords,
they were priced down where true car enthusiasts could afford one. Not where
car speculators forced the prices.
I had my '51 Riley shipped to here in Alabama from the LA, CA area. In the semi
were Mercedes converables, and othe expensive late model cars. The driver said
that when he each time he loaded a new car, he had to unload my Riley.
Each time everyone came over and looked over the Riley. They werent interested
in your common run of the mill SEL converable.
Once I put my '51 Riley in a car show with a bunch of Jags (XJS, XKE,XK140s).
The Jag owners were quit perturbed when my Riley got all the attention.
Buy a Riley and with the money you save, buy a couple dozen MGB's and go racing.
Martin Frankford
(205)232-7126
mfrankfo@nebula.tbe.com
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