At 02:12 PM 11/8/96 -0600, you wrote:
>
>>From my knowledge of TC's, 70 or 80 in one of these would be scary
>regardless of the engine. The tires and brakes suck by modern standards.
.... SNIP ...
>self centerd prick (which I am). On the way back in the A, I got more
>waves and thumbs up than I ever had in my other cars. I can only imagine
>the enjoyment that running a TC down the freeway at 75 mph would bring to
>yourself and to those around you.
>
Bill,
What you say is true. Tooddling around in a lone TC causes smiles and waves
from just about everybody. Driving around with six or seven TC's can and
does literally stop traffic. All of this adds to the experience of a funky
little car that's truely fun to drive.
On the other hand, while comming back from this years GOF we had to make an
extended run on I-5 just north of Seattle at dusk and had to push the
envelope just to keep from getting run over. That was a completely
different experience. It's one thing to look up at the bottom of a semi
trailer when you have the time to look around but at 60 -65 mph the TC
tends to explore the boundaries of its traffic lane and reigning in the
willful little thing requires all ones concentration. Add in a melee of
frustrated commuters whos only interest is getting in front of the car ahead
of them by fair means or foul and couldn't care less what that obstacle
might be, long haul trucks attempting to make up for time lost in the city
who use their size as an (EXTREMELY effective) intimidation device and the
joy of driving a 50 year old sports car dims somewhat.
Speed is relative in an LBC: what's fast for the TC is cruising for the GT,
what's fast for the GT is crusing to a Jag and so on.
The bottom line is if one really had to go 70 - 80 on the street in a TC
you'd have to change to rack and pinion steering, disk brakes, and wider
tires ( can you say GDFPO?). Maybe they just buy a faster car......
Cheers
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