Britain's "remarkable automotive cottage industry"

[Trevor Legate]

Whatsa Cobra
Amen to all the above. Do NOT get me started on my rally exploits with my Sprite (my first car) or I will create a record posting. Three years of utter madness but boy, did I learn about roadholding and how to get a car round a corner. Many years later I was informed that I was deemed certifiable by those who observed my antics but I could do just about anything with that car and never crashed. (Always in control, officer....)Well, not seriously. I blew 3 engines, 2 gearboxes, wore all the splines off the propshaft (with revs and speedo off the clock, going round the second time) and caught fire once but I always drove it home. I could whip the engine and box out in an hour and a half on my own with one trolley jack and slap in another and be back at work on Monday. Drove all over the UK, hardly ever put the roof up (torrential rain only) and was classified in the top 10 on dozens of rallies around southern England. All it lacked was power - just as well or would not be here now!
The car was sold to a friend, restored and I brought it back but it felt totally different, the handling was wrecked. Sold it to a collector in Rome and I hope its happy.

Agree also on the Saab front - in my case a 900 turbo. Deceptively swift motoring. My only concern arrived when I was overtaking a very large lorry uphill in a ball of spray and the front tyres lost contact with planet earth. Not good. Great for all day cruising at 120mph - actually they were crap at lower speeds as the interior suffered body-boom, caused, i discovered, from the lack of a prop-shaft. Ultra-quiet at 110. Iffy electrics.

Also go along with the Lada - my sister owned one. Loads of cheap laughs, the more snow the better.

Our senior motoring journalist, Jeremy Clarkson recently tested the new Fiat Panda (bear with me) and declared it one of the best cars he had ever driven. It handled!!!! It got him to his Cotswold home, driving past sranded Range Rovers, in a recent snowy spell. For a whole week, he left his AMG-Mercedes SL and Volvo XC90 and jumped into the Panda, simply because it was fun. As he pointed out, if you did run out of road and crash - no problem , because you'd only be doing 24mph at the time.
Not to say there is anything wrong with Lots of power - I was driving a CAV GT40 recently- oh yes and the Gardner Douglas Lola T70 repica with Corvette power, no windscreen, no weight..........oh dear here I go again! And the wife wants to go shopping so I'm off