>From where I sit in Australia, the perception I've always had is that the
Rootes product was marketed in the States with emphasis on the luxury side
of the product. Most of the period brochures I have show the Alpine much
longer and wider than it really is - to match the rest of the American
product at the time apparently. Yes - cars other than Cadillac could have
fins and be luxurious. Of course while you can draw a car any way you like,
a small four cylinder in a relatively heavy car is never going to go hard
straight out of the box - but maybe that's not what Rootes were trying to
achieve.
But yes - sending a luxury car to a performance magazine may not be such a
great idea!!
My 2 australian dollars worth.
Clyde.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Spencer <SpenceIC@Healthall.com>
To: <alpines@autox.team.net>; <Jay_Laifman@countrywide.com>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 4:39 AM
Subject: Re: C&D Alpine article and Imps
> Jay,
> It seems to me that Rootes was more concerned with luxary than anything
else. I've noticed that all the road test cars were GT's and loaded with
options. They obviously wanted to showcase the best.
>
> Ian Spencer
> Client Services
> University Hospital
> Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati
> (513) 584-0365
>
> >>> <Jay_Laifman@countrywide.com> 08/09/01 10:08AM >>>
> I recently got a 1963 Car and Driver magazine. It has a review of the
> Alpine S3 GT. Geeze zooks. They really put the car down in the
> performance category. And, I think just about every sentence of praise
> that was followed by a negative sentence. The bummer is that they had the
> detuned 80hp GT with the 3.89 rear end. Maybe it was in response to this
> that the 4.22 came out on more cars! I have to say it seemed like a
> mistake on the Rootes marketing department to send a detuned car to a
> performance oriented magazine for review (assuming it came from Rootes,
> another new car reviewed in the magazine was from a private owner). Sure
> the added GT trim and quietness is worth something to a lot of people, but
> not these types of magazines. Of course it continues today with BMW
> constantly at the top of the heap.
>
> On the other hand, there was a nice comment elsewhere in the magazine
about
> Imps (once you get through the part about the MG):
> "The Best-Designed Car of the Year would have to be the MG 1100. It is a
> mechanical package that makes so much sense that it should embarrass other
> small car designers. ... Hopefully, BMC will plow some of the Mini-Minor
> and MG/Morris 1100 profits back into engineering and come up with an
engine
> like that of the Imp or the Cortina."
>
> Be 'beaming you,
> Jay
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