[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]

Autostick/tiptronic



In message <199808201926.PAA23949@urq.East.Sun.COM> Robert Houk - WorkGroup Server Firmware writes:

> My Lotus Europa *IS* a "Sports Car", thinly-disguised race car that
> it really is at heart. The Mazda Miata is a "Sports Car", if a tad
> hefty (and underpowered, stock).

Gordon Bennet!!  There's one still rolling?

I spent a couple of days wrenching on a Europa around a quarter of a
century ago.  Fun beast.  We were developing something with a similar
profile - a Cox GTM.  This thing used two Mini front subframes - one
in the front, and one in the back.  Shades of the ur-quattro - same
suspension front and rear.  The Mini engine (in a Mini) was actually
in front of the wheels - so putting the engine in the rear subframe
created a mid-engined sports car.  Fashionable at the time.

I liked the Europa.  Ford Anglia front bumpers around the rear, and
MGB bootlocks as door handles ...

> I have difficulty calling anything over a ton (or tonne) a "Sports
> Car". Of course "underpowered" is also almost de rigeur for a "Sports
> Car", and Audi does excell at that aspect.

If the MGB is to be included in your list, then 'underpowered' has
to be part of the definition.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
 (The contents of this post will _NOT_ appear in the UK Newsletter.)