>(The Lancia has convinced me that there are worse things in this world than
>Lucas electronics.)
Back when I was about to purchase my Lotus Cortina, aka The World's
Ugliest Lotus ("That's a Lotus?" said one friend. "I thought Lotuses
were..." "Pretty?" I suggested), a friend of a friend caught wind of
my find and begged me not to buy it, because he wanted it for himself.
Apparently his first car had been a Lotus 28 (the factory designation
for the Dagenham Dustbin), which he had acquired new in Europe, where
he was born and raised. The car was totalled while parked, and Peter
(the FOAF) never got over it.
"I really, really want to buy that car," he told me. "In fact, if you
let me buy the car, I'll *give* you my Lancia."
"Peter," I said, "you know as well as I do that there's no such
thing as a free Lancia."
Many was the time I wished I'd learned to say Magneti Marelli after
I actually acquired the Cortina. The poor thing had been pretty well
sodded over by at least one previous owner. I've got stories to tell
about that car -- let's just say that the Lucas components on that
car were far and away the most reliable parts on it (except for the
Weber carbs, which had been set up properly for the engine and which
never, not once, in conditions ranging from incipient overheating
through an inch of frost on the car, gave me trouble.)
And yes, I sold that car when the world's most expensive Lotus
Cortina was going for about four thousand dollars and you could
still get good Elans for six or seven. Oh well. My collection of
MGBs will ensure that BMC products will remain cheap at least through
the milennium.
--Scott "Afraid to look at the prices of Falcon Sprints" Fisher
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