Yeah, my daughter's boy friend bought me a copy of that publication. The
first thing I did was to look for anything Triumph, but my effort was in
vain. I do take exception to many of the "rolling junkmobiles" that are
listed, however. And, I found it quite interesting that Mario Andretti
listed the '50s/'60s VW Beetle as one of his top 10 choices.
BTW who gave DuPont such authority to do this? The family is weird, and the
company makes chemicals, napalm, weapons explosives (lots of those), auto
paint,... Wait, auto paint, I guess that qualifies them! Or are we perhaps
talking of another DuPont? Maybe one in France.
I love the looks of all years of Spitfires. If I had to change anything it
would be to give the stock version about 25 more horsepower.
Reid
'79 Spitfire (original owner)
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry L. Thompson [mailto:tlt@digex.net]
Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 9:07 AM
To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Fine literature
The second magazine/article I came across was "The DuPont Register: Top
100 cars of this Century". (Doesn't sound too impressive, until you
consider that there were only a few hand-made automobiles BEFORE 1900). I
decided to see if Triumph had received even an honorable mention in the
side-lines. I figured I would start from the back of the list (100) and
work my way backward, and I'd eventually run into atleast a TR2 or TR3
aknowledgement. Page, after page of Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus, Aston
Martin, BMW, et al.
The Ford Mustang was listed twice. Once for the classic 62-70 and again
for the 90-99 models. Both incarnations of the Shelby Cobra were listed
independantly as well. But, search as I might, no listing of a
single-solitary Triumph in any way shape or form.
I don't mean to sound spiteful, but I guess that Triumph was just a
bit-player in the grand scale of automobile geniuses, such as the creators
of the Plymouth Prowler and the DeLorean DMC. (I let out a very audible
"You've got to be kidding!" which seemed to resonate for minutes in the
cloistered confines of that Border's Book store.)
Disgusted with that blatent disregard for the entire line of enjoyable
Triumph models (which I might add, have elicited as many excitable squeels
from delighted drivers in their 50 year or so reign as any Corvette or
Volkswagon Beetle), I beat a hasty retreat, with my
triple-grande-no-foam-half-decaf-now-tepid-latte in tote, out of the store.
My head is still shaking (like the toy-dog in on the dash of a 74 gremlin)
in disbelief.
Terry L. Thompson
'76 Spit 1500
Maryland
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