IMHO there is no point at all in harking back to a golden age of British
roadsters. The only reason they sold in large numbers at all in the fifties
and sixties was because of a historical accident: the USA had a demand for
them. The US didn't make them, as the demand by Detroit standards was tiny,
and anyway they had an 'import' cachet, perhaps fuelled by US servicemen
visiting Europe and English music. In 1945 only the US and the UK were
producing cars in any number. The British Motor Industry could only get
steel from the Ministry of Supply after the war for export cars, so they
responded by designing cars which the US market wanted. Fortunately, the
market wanted zippy roadsters and didn't care too much about the engineering
as long as it didn't go wrong _too_ often, so few of them had much merit
from a design point of view. (I exclude Jaguars from this on looks and
engineering and Healey on looks alone!). "Export or die!" was the slogan
then.
In the late sixties the UK became comparatively prosperous, too, and the
fervour to export subsided. The UK motor industry committed hara-kiri and
fears about side-intrusion and rollover legislation stopped the development
of open cars in the US as in the UK (viz the Stag and the TR7). That was the
end of the mass-market British sports car.
The new crop of roadsters has had an effect on old sports car sales in the
UK, too. You can buy a nice Fiat Barchetta or MGF now for the price of the
best MGB, so what's the point in going for the MGB? Contrary to what was
said by someone else, the MGF is not old technology: it has a mid-mounted
all-alloy 16-valve DOHC injection engine with _continuously variable_ valve
timing. Suck on that, ricers!
My first car was an MGB. I have had three of them, plus many other British
sports cars. They are nice old things, but let's move on! There are better
cars now, and does it matter that they're not British? I still like old
cars, but mainly because they are cheap, not because they were better then:
I am currently rebuilding a Lancia Montecarlo (Scorpion). Alloy hemi head,
twin cams, 5 speeds, 4-wheel discs, mid-engined. I'd sooner have that than
my old MGB! When I can afford an old MGF, I'll get one of those. The only
thing which may stop me getting a nineties car is all the electronics, which
makes it hard for the home mechanic to look after them.
Paul.
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