Spridgeteers,
I just returned from two weeks in Italy and see that the list is alive and
well (though very little from Larry in PA - what gives?). This was my
second trip to Italy and I have two general and over-broad observations.
First, Italians are fun-loving, polite, and considerate. With the exception
of one waitress, every one of the scores of people I met on both trips
treated me and our little group great. We fared much better than on similar
vacations in the States. Second, Italy is THE place to own a sportscar. We
spent a week in the lake district and a week in Tuscany, and it seemed
every road was tight, twisty, and had a great surface. The drivers are
great, too. Not only do they know the rules of the road, but I think that
their driving schools must teach racing. I could just not keep up with any
of them; they all seemed to be running a great line, with perfect braking,
apexing, and exiting.
I saw several MGFs, Minis, and modern Rovers. Surprisingly, there were few
convertibles of any make, and no classic cars at all except for scads of
Fiat 500s. There were tons of these cute cars everywhere except the
autoroutes (equivalent of US interstates). I think that Minis are cooler,
but the 500s have their own charm. They certainly were the car to have in
the little hill towns.
BTW, do any of you have driving experience with turbocharged A+ series
engines? The Fiat I had was turbo'd, and the lag really sucked (pun
intended). I guess that was ok, though, because the nonlinear response of
the throttle was easily matched by the nonlinear braking. Made for some
lively mountain driving. Anyway, I've read of a few folks in the UK using a
turbo from a later A series engine on their spridget and they seem to love
it. Maybe the lag isn't as bad?
Jeff
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision
http://www.molvis.org/molvis
"Seeing the Future in a Very Tiny Way"
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