Well, for what it's worth, I think that age doesn't matter. If you love
the cars, then you've got the bug.
I do think that the context of the times that each of us grows up in
matters a lot. I'm 47 and I have brother 9 years older. When I was in third
and fourth grade he was reading Car & Driver and Road & Track. i grew reading
about F1 drivers and hearing stories of Sterling Moss, Fangio and, my own
personal hero, Jimmy Clark. I remember owning a little BRG TR03 Dinky car. I
loved sports cars. My best friend's older brother had an AH 3000 Mk III. I
had never sat in a car with bucket seats before.
Now I've got a 1967 Mk.3 Spitfire. Compare it to the typical car of its
day. We had a '66 Tempest convertable. No rack & pinion steering, bench
seats, 3 speed on the steering column, solid rear axle, suspension designed
to ride like a whale on a straight road, weighed probably 3000 lbs, tons of
body roll, and handled like a pig, requiring constant corrections. Now the
Spit: buckets, 4 on the floor, 1550-1600 lbs, rack & pinion, IRS, nimble
handling, great mileage, tight suspension, with a cool factor much higher
than the typical American iron. But today, even my 1990 Honda Civic has rack
& pinion, sway bar, 4 speed, buckets, fairly tight handling, etc. It may well
be that many younger folks don't see LBC's the way we do. I wanted a sports
car, either British or Italian, since I was 7 or 8 years old. I guess that
todays rice rockets speak to the same needs.
I do think that education, ie, speaking to high schools, etc is a great
idea.
Anyway, that's enough of a rant from me.
Brian
'67 Mk.3
'70 Mk. 3 organ donor
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