>Of the many, many British car owners I've met over the years, there seems
to
>be 3 schools of thought that govern how they use their cars. There are the
>"hot-rodders" like myself, who are always trying to make them better,
>faster, more reliable, etc... without losing their character. Not always an
>easy balancing act. And then there are the "concourse" people
>who build them to be time capsules to another era, wanting everything to be
>as it was when they rolled off the assembly line all those years ago.
>Finally there are the folks who just think they are cool and like driving
>them, washing them, looking at them gleam in their driveway and maybe
>showing them off at the local "show and shine" at the park every summer.
I think the TR4 is going to stay pretty original. Even the ADDCO sway bar I
am going to put on the front is essentially "period". There were lots of
ADDCO bars on sports car in the old days. It won't be concours. But it
won't be modified much, either.
The Europa is something different. Although it might not be impossible to
return it to stock, it would be very expensive and certainly not worth the
effort. Most of the fiberglass custom work has been reversed. But I am not
about to throw away the koa-burl dash. The car is destined to be neither
fish nor fowl. It will never be competitive in any of the present autocross
classes due to its odd mix of mods. It will never be particularly pretty.
But it will continue to be lots of fun to drive in a car which will resemble
a stock Europa.
So I can wear too very different hats with my two British cars. Part of it
is going with the flow. The cars' destinies are dictated by what they are
in condition and in originality, coupled with my inherent distaste at
spending large sums of money to change them.
Phil Ethier West Side Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L
pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/ http://www.vtr2002.org
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