Larry,
I got your point....
I just happen to have looked in my auto encyclopedia and found several
examples of other 'wedgie' shapes (between turkey, potatoes, etc).
As far as the US commercial is concerned, it wasn't enough to arrest the
descent of the Titanic that TR sales had become. Present cars are styled
more by the wind tunnel; hence the 'blob' shape that appears to try for
laminar flow of air. Less CD, less power is required to push it through
the air, more fuel mileage. I can't find any reference to the TR being
styled with heavy wind tunnel access, but it's possible (not very probable,
though, with Leylands' money trouble).
As far as the TR7 being a ground breaker, I think that it would be wise to
remember that SEVERAL other makers of that time had cars of ROUGHLY the
wedge shape on the boards. (In fact, I can think of one that had a VERY
pronounced wedgie in production.)
The TR7 was rushed into production (some say at the expense of MG <who also
had a wedge shape on the boards>), with many of the features that it was
originally intended to have missing or designed out to save money.
The 7, in short was not really that unique, failed due to lack of quality
early on, and was outsold by the B- a palsied shadow of the original car by
the mid-70's.
Hell, I have nothing against the people who want one...people collect
Edsels...but a cute ad campaign has nothing to do with "original concept".
Don't let this put you off buying late model...by the time they got the
hook at Leyland, they were OK cars, as long as you got the V-8 and didn't
get the plaid seats!
Regards, Ray
PS-Remember the uproar when the Midget sticker was appended to the AH
Sprite? At least THAT was a good car...and a little 'badge engineering'
didn't hurt it! A good design will carry on....
At 01:30 PM 11/27/97 -0500, Larry Macy wrote:
>On 11/27/97 9:23 AM so and so Ray McCrary said. (And I quote)
>
>>>Question - Remember the TV commercials "The shape of things to come" Look
>>>at all of the "new" cars and tell me where they got the idea??
>>>
>>I believe that most of the 'jellybean' shapes came out of a wind tunnel.
>>The TR7 was a failure as a car; sort of a British Edsel. The cars rusted,
>>the head gaskets blew, the transmissions broke, and the front suspensions
>>fell apart. I'm sure there was more, but, time has been merciful and I've
>>forgotten the rest.
>>Road and Track had a survey in which about 80 percent of the owners said
>>they would never have another!
>>The TR8 was a pretty good car, but by then it was too late. (Ugly plaid
>>seats, though....)
>>On the other hand, MG has had a few bombs, too...
>>Regards,
>>Ray
>Missed the point. If you remember the "Shape of things to come"
>commercials. you will remember that they showed everything with a "wedge"
>shape. If you look at todays cars what is similar? They have a low front
>end and a high ass with (in America) high tail lights. Is that not a
>wedge shape, yea rounded re: Blade Runner. But the point is they are
>still in the "Shape of things to come"
>
>Larry Macy
>78 Midget
>(Rounded and flowing style)
>
|