Hi LBC netters,
I'm a bit late on this thread, just reading my weekend digests this Monday night
in Holland. Interesting about the NATO guy that got to import an MGF for a
year. I don't remember if I said, but a couple of months ago I went to a rally
with a couple of Dutch MGB friends, Bert and Frank, and happened to get to ride
around the track once in an MGF.
It's a great little car, but I have to agree with some of the other posts, even
though it's called an MG, I certainly didn't get any sort of thrilling,
exhalirating (ms?) MG feeling being in it (like Bert's 66 and Frank's 69). It
could have been a Miata, Z3, Del Sol. A month before that when I drove a TF for
the first time, I knew I was in an MG.Too much has changed between 1980 and
1996.
The RV8 had a much better chance to continue the lineage, IMHO. There were a
few RV8s at the rally, first time I'd seen them in person, and although I didn't
get to ride in one, they really look more like MGs - an updated, restyled MGB.
I think if it had been simpler and less expensive, maybe it would have had a
better future - like what the MGB could have been with a V8 engine in the mid
70's. I think the builders way overdid it with the luxury appointments, made
it too expensive, and overpriced it for the market. Too bad, it looks good.
As far as most of us buying an MGF if they were sold in the US. I really don't
think we would be the target market, and I don't think many of us would buy a
new car that we couldn't work on ourselves even if it had the MG badge. We may
dream of new, fast, smooth, quiet, high g cornering, leak tight convertible
sports cars, but I think we're mostly married to the smells, sounds and noises,
squeaks, rattles, thumping the fuel pump, rocking the stuck ring gear fun of
open motoring in a car that we can enjoy driving, learning about how it works,
and fixing ourselves. I might have considered an RV8, but I don't think I'd be
inclined to buy an MGF.
Welcome back David - glad you weren't gone long.
Safety Fast,
Rick '68B still home in Louisiana with Dad' Huber
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