Listers,
...if this bores you (and I could hardly blame you), the following is
fully deletable!!
Steve (W),
I tend to hyperventilate on the list a lot, partly because I'm old and
partly because hyperbole is such fun. However Steve L. was also I think a bit
taken aback by my suggestion. It was not a criticism of the present contest
nor an attempt to substitute for it. I was though serious about a sort of
'sideline' contest with at least roughly my criteria.
I don't know if anything is possible along those lines; when I spoke of
the 'engineering types' the other day, you were the first I thought of because
of your work. Maybe your response is the confirmation of my doubts.
Nonetheless, I don't even know who makes the Monster Miata, I just saw mention
of it in Tiger Tales a few years ago. But if I walked around Reno, I'd be
willing to bet I'd find few people who knew what one was and even fewer who
knew where to get one. That doesn't suggest that Mazda (or any partner) is
doing national marketing. And I'd dispute the 'dozens of forms'. There's a
big 'cheap' hole between hopped up fours and XJ8's in more companies than
Ford. Iaccoca saw that in large terms in the early 60's, Shelby (and thence
Garrad) saw it in smaller terms.
Yeah, $15K was a throwaway (too late at night, just like now). And yes,
my parents' '64 Dodge Dart push button auto 273 c.i. (a nice car!) was
probably cheaper than the Tiger by a bit. But the XKE wasn't, nor the
Porsche, nor others. And the Tiger was as well appointed or better and could
cheaply be made about as fast; there's the niche that should have sold it,
but didn't. In fact it wouldn't now. If you could find a modest-sized car
that you could get a smallblock 8 into, the modern Tiger would be the low
performance version of that engine. It might keep up with the souped up rice
burners, but that's about it. Market potential questionable, but as you
pointed out '... what would it be if someone did execute it?' In addition,
with a V8, (Mustang) Cobra-ize it or put a turbocharger and NOS on that and
ah.....fried rice? And something to hunt far more expensive cars with.
So that's why I wanted a separate contest. Call it the 'ski-bum' Tiger
contest. One can use a Chebby engine (despite the jeers) or source parts and
make it a real world car, Ian Garrad would have used whatever worked. If you
can drop it mid-car with a transaxle running into IRS, more power to you.
It's the spirit of nosethumbing at the big boys that counts -- limited
development, tinker-toy parts.
Chris
P.S. -- You might be right about Shelby, my point was that someone had already
made a Cobra/Tiger that most of us couldn't afford. But Shelby did lend his
name to Chrysler and sat for some ads in the driver's seat. That probably
sold more cars initially than half the engineering Chrysler put into it.
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