[This message has been cross-posted to the Alpines sublist.]
On SOL, Lee Daniels writes:
>My disassembled TR6 still hasn't told me his name. All I know is that he
>is a "he". Hairy-chested sports cars don't have effeminate names.
When they were first introduced, Alpines were considered less-than-
manly, probably due to the high level of creature comforts when
compared with the competition at the time: MGAs, TR3s, and Bugeye
Sprites. Aiding in that effeminate image was the lack of performance
in the early models.
I'd had my car about a year and still it didn't have a name. So I got
to thinking one day. Since it is a white Alpine, the name should have
something to do with snow or winter sports. Also, I wanted the name
to have a connection back to the U.K. After a bit of free association,
it became perfectly clear: who is Jolly Old's most famous winter
sportsman? None other than Olympic ski jumper Eddie "the Eagle"
Edwards! Thus my car is "Eddie the Eagle".
I realized later that this name has even more significance than I
thought. In the fall of '88, just a few months after the '88 Winter
Olympics in Calgary, I was shopping for my LBC. Tigers East/Alpines
East, a national Sunbeam club, was having their national meet in my
city. This would be a perfect opportunity to look at some cars for
sale. But just days before the show, I was told I had to travel out
of town on business (one of only 4 out-of-town trips in my 10 years
here). To Calgary no less. I saw the ski jumps where Eddie had done
his thing earlier that year. And I missed the Sunbeam show. I got
back into town around 6:00 Saturday evening, after the show had
broken up. ARRRRGGGG!!!! Though I no longer work for Rich, we both
still work at Intergraph, and 6 years later I still haven't forgiven
him for sending me out of town!
I found Eddie about a month later in Birmingham, through an ad in Auto
Trader. He's been a lot of trouble, and I often wonder (especially
during a bad sworking session) if I could have found a better car at
the show I missed.
So even though Alpines are considered by some to be "effeminate", mine
has a male name.
-- T.J. Higgins | tjhiggin(at)ingr.com | (205) 730-7922 Intergraph Corp. | Mapping Sciences Division | Huntsville, AL, USA
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:14:13 CDT