RFeibusch@aol.com wrote:
>
> Dear Listers,
> Anyone out there ever analyze what elements in your
> childhood are responsible for your interest in British
> cars? I know that many of us are car nuts and motorheads
> in general and are into ALL cars in one way or another,
> but it takes a certain sort to be a British car owner.
>
> I personally have three major influences that got me
> going in a British direction very early in life. To start
> with, my mother informs me that I showed a major
> interest in cars from about the time I began to talk.
> My first three words were mama, dad, and Buick!
> The only toys that I seemed to like had wheels on them.
> Being that this was going on in the late Forties, might
> explain why my favorite cars come from the 1938-1954
> era and in particular, Morris Minors, that are the LBC embodiment of this era
> of styling.
>
> 1) I come from San Francisco, a place that was steeped
> in British cars during the British "Export or Die" years
> right after the war. These cars were everywhere. We had neighbors with Austin
> A40s and family friends with a
> Hillman Minx convertible. My father, a non-motorhead who didn't buy a family
> car until 1954 (there is great public transportation in SF) took me to the
> road races held in
> Golden Gate Park in the early Fifties. Even though I was
> only four or five years old at the time, I vividly
> remember those races. I can still hear the Cad-Allards
> and Jag XK120s winding up to a roar on the straights,
> then backing off and popping little backfires of rich
> mixture as they slowed for the corners.
> The little MGs looked, to me, exactly what a car should
> look like; swooping fenders separate headlamps and a
> tyre on the back. It took me 33 years to finally own one
> of these (a BRG '50 TD) and I wasn't disappointed.
> I'm sure that there were other nationalities of cars
> there, but the only ones I seem to remember were British.
> This makes vintage racing such a great experience for
> me as I'm one of the few of my generation who actually
> saw many of these early cars race.
>
> 2) Dinky Toys and to a lesser extent Matchbox Toys.
> Though I never actively "collected" them, I had many
> and knew the whole line. Here was an American five
> year old who knew what a Riley Two-and-a Half Liter
> series RM saloon and a Morris Oxford was! I had a model
> of every postwar Austin including the FX3 taxi, an
> Atlantic drophead and an A40 Van. My first model kit
> was a Revell "Highway Pioneers" MGTD that my mom
> built for me. She painted the interior with nail polish
> that "crinkled" it up like real leather! I didn't stand
> a chance.
>
> 3) When I was about six, my folks took me to an English
> film called Genevieve, a comedy about the London to
> Brighton race of brass-era cars . At this point I was
> able to see the place where the cars came from.
> I was hooked. At six, I decided that outside of San
> Francisco, England was the place to be. I didn't get to
> go there either until many years later and also was not disappointed.
>
> This was long before Carnaby Street, Monte Python and
> The Beatles. Mick and the Stones were still in school!
> All Americans are Anglophiles to one extent or another,
> but I feel that most British car owners have an earlier
> or "past-life" connection to an English way of life.
>
> How about the rest of you out there? Why do you like British cars? See you
> on the Funway!
> Rick Feibusch
> Automotive Journalist/Appraiser
> http://www.EnglishCars.com/rick.html
> mailto:RFeibusch@aol.com
> 61 Minor pickup
> 60 Minor Saloon
> 59 Minor Convertible
> 69 Chevelle Malibu 350
My first exposure was Dad's mid-life crisis, when in 1975 he came home
one afternoon with a well-kept '72 Spitfire. I was hooked immediately.
The swoopy body work, exotic (to me) lift away front end, and the
fighter plane association in the name was all it took. I was 13 at the
time, and spent three years pushing it out of the garage every weekend
to wash it. During my senior year in high school, the car became mine,
and unfortunately, given my lack of money and mechanical knowledge,
deteriorated quickly, and was sold 18 months later - but oh what an 18
months!
Chris Delling
77 MGB (Fergie)
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