It's worth bearing in mind that a lot of these British sport scars were
built in minute quantities, and so didn't have the same level of development
funding as their American counterparts. For example, there were
approximately 20,000 Corvette Sting Rays built each year during the Sixties.
In contrast, some of the smaller British specialist car manufacturers might
build a tenth as many cars over this decade. Off the top of my head, the
total production of the TVR Griffith between '63 and '67 was about 310 (and
even that figure may be on the high side), and Morgan build about 1580 Plus
Fours.
Secondly, many of these famous sports cars were sold as kits, and so
maybe weren't so well built as a factory built car. And those that were
factory built, were built as cheap, and frequently disposable, sports cars.
Neither of these lend themselves to durable, and high quality cars.
Thirdly, driving conditions vary hugely between the States and the UK:
America had a lot of long, straight roads, and cars were built for this.
Here in Britain, we didn't get the first motorway until the mid Sixties,
whilst English country roads are anything but straight. And this will have
affected the basic designs of the cars: I would be willing to bet money that
no American car of the period could keep up with a Lotus Seven across the
British countryside.
Graeme
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