~ Not only that, but
~ BMW, not VW, really invented Fahrvergnugen. Honest.
Actually, it should surprise no one on this list to learn that
the first use of the word "Fahrvergnuegen" in print was in a
German book on sports cars published in the 1930s.
The car to which this word was applied was, of course, an M.G.
~ The Midget is about 1,000X as much fun to drive.
Exactly. As you gradually fix the problems, the car will not
only become more rewarding to drive, but it'll also become
much more *personal* as it takes on your own character in the
choices you make and the effort you supply.
Last Thursday, Kim picked up our usual babysitter and we set off
to drink Fuller's ESB and throw darts at a local British pub (the
Britannia Arms, for BASOLs). This was about the second time she
has ever been in this car with me -- the exigencies of two-seaters
and families being what they are. And it was the first time she
had been in it with the new wheels, tires -- and motor.
We rumbled down the road, and I commented on how nicely the motor
was finally beginning to run. "Oh, that's right," she said; "this
is the motor out of the black car?"
"It's the one I built in our garage," I said, "with my own hands,
and those of a few friends." Traffic was too heavy to do anything
really interesting with it, but just the fact of travel in something
that I'd built brought home the effort that I'd been spending for
so many years.
Dinner was pretty good for trad Brit fare (meaning it was recognizable,
in many details, as Food), and the Fuller's was just wonderful. Then
we spent an hour throwing darts; we waived the double-on, double-off
requirment, which was just as well. I do have my own darts, and I used
to be halfway decent at throwing them, but I haven't picked them up in
more than five years, and, uh, well, the vanes that go into the shaft
must have dried out in that time, THAT'S why they're so much less
accurate than they used to be...
On the way home I had an opportunity to make a point about the tires.
"The best thing about this car," I said, "is how well it sticks with
the race tires." We approached our street going about 35 mph, and
I made a left turn without lifting. No squeal, no slide, no change
in the car's attitude; it just went where I pointed it undramatically,
if you overlook the G-loading that was trying to push Kim out the
passenger's-side door. (These, for those who are paying attention
to this sort of thing, are Yokohama A008RSs, the IT-preferred road
racing compound; yes, I expect to wear them out in 6000 or 7000 miles.
It's worth it.)
Top-down at night, though, is really the best thing. I like pushing
that car through a set of bends (though I haven't had the opportunity
to push it through much more than a single on- or off-ramp since getting
it back together), but just *motoring* in it. On the way to dinner,
the wind whipping loose strands of Kim's hair that had peeked out from
where she had it tied with a Lindsay tartan scarf, the engine purring
*very* loudly (high-compression motors do that) as we puttered down
the boulevard, we agreed with Mr. Toad: "There is nothing, absolutely
nothing in the world that half so much fun as simply messing about
with M.G.s"
(Well, he would have said that if Kenneth Grahame had ever known
Cecil Kimber.)
--Scott
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