Just got back from my 22-day, 6-city and innumerable-village
trip to Britain, so it's time to post:
THE EPIC JOURNEY OF L752COB
or
"Hither and Yawn"
L752COB is the registration of the 1993 16-valve Escort we
rented, pardon me, hired, from Hertz. Hey, I got a deal on
it, alright? British-tuned econoboxes turn in a much better
performance than their yank equivalents, and this was no
exception. Sharp-looking with an aero package and two-toned
silver and dark grey paintwork, and a useful hill-climber
besides. Put 1800 miles on it in those three weeks, which is
more than it had on the clock to start with.
I'm not really going to post the whole trip here, just a couple
of LBC notes:
- Classic LBC sightings on the road. Regretably few.
a remarkable number of beautiful Stags, I was quite amazed.
Easily the most common Triumph I saw, apart from the so-called
Triumph Acclaim, which was merely a relabeled Honda Prelude.
Lots of Morgan plus Eights, which are a delight to the eye. Some
TR7s, and a great many MG BGTs, which were far more common than
dropheads for some reason. Any number of Minis, at times I would
hear the music from "The Italian Job" when I saw a cluster of three
or so... TVRs were not uncommon. I saw NO pre-7 TRs whatsoever,
which was rather depressing.
Visited the Heritage Motor Centre, which, though beautiful and well-
done was a slight letdown, due to its solely Rover Group orientation.
They're not bringin out the Jags and Loti until those companies
come up with some sponsorship support. Consequently, among all the
terrific and important cars (of which they have many), they're wasting
space on also-rans like the aforementioned "Triumph" Acclaim.
Visited the Keswick Motor Museum in Cumbria. Saw James Bond's Aston,
Emma Peel's Elan, and something they wanted you to believe was The
Prisoner's Lotus Seven, KAR120C. They even put that number plate on
it, which is sheer fraud, since the fate of the true KAR120C is well-
documented, and the number plate was officially reissued to Caterham's
Anniversary "Prisoner Edition" Super Seven. There is some reason to
believe that the Lotus displayed was one of those used in the series,
but it's not the one used in the title sequence to which that plate
really belongs.
All in all, a fantastic vacation in Scotland and England, for reasons
having little to do with LBCs...
Cheers,
Dan
P.S., the word "cheers" seems to have acquired multiple meanings since
last I was there. It now seems to mean "Thanks", as well as "Goodbye"
and its original use as a toast.
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