Luddite - what a fantastic video and what a great guy. It's amazing what true enthusiasm can achieve. Thanks for posting - really enjoyed that. Peter H
Tim H, I could not disagree with your astute assessment in any way, however having dawned a sunny but cold morning with no salt on the road, I fired up my C4S and took it for a little run as I tend to do so once a month in the right conditions, just to warm up the oil and hopefully exercise most of the one`s and zero`s in the software to stop them from drifting off into a sleep they may not awaken from. Once the oil is up to temp and with a 70MPH limit on a couple of stretches of my run, that is enough to accelerate a bit and make just a little music with the exhaust valves opened, before returning it to it`s Winter month duty performing as garage art... (-:
Just heading out in the Mog to repeat the process, though need to put a few more layers on... (-:
Think it was Colin McRae who said "Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers." Kinda sums it up if far fewer words than I am ever likely to use... (-:
Apparently Another of many quotes attributed to Colin was, "You are here for a good time, not a long time" Prescient or what..?
Peter H, I am so pleased you enjoyed that. Ivan is quite a character indeed, he started of on YT using the title ..Ivan`s Garage.. but due to issues with whoever was recording his material, he changed it to Shed Racing. There is a whole raft of Ivan`s material on YT to enjoy... IF you are into that sort of thing... (-:
Seems Car & Classic recorded a bit of a resume of Ivan`s activities. Link below. ENJOY..(-:
And lets not forget the obvious - the Ferrari/Porker/Lambo/McLaren gives the owner far greater bragging rights than the MX5 regardless of their ability to drive it properly or not.
"Y mae dafad ddu ym mhob praidd" 1972 4/4, 1981 MGBGT, 1984 FLHT1340, 1980 XLH1000, 1990 ZX10
There is great fun to be had in driving a lower performance car to its limit,
This is exactly the point of driving for pleasure in my view. You need to be able to feel the car as it nears the limit, understand how the tyres move, what the steering inputs do, and so on.
Sure, you can do this in a high performance car, but you need to pay for an expensive closed track with extensive runoffs, and if you get it wrong you are looking at even more expensive repairs. On the other hand, larking about on a deserted B road in a car that has a much smaller performance envelope is not only free, but even if you do get it wrong you'll be sliding into the hedge at 40mph rather than 140mph.
For the rest of it, which usually involves just getting from A to B with the least grief, is actually more enjoyable in a lower performance car as you don't have to be constantly fighting the urge to go faster. My 4/4 on a motorway is perfectly happy up to 85 and can sit at 70 all day, but there's no risk of me absent-mindedly pressing a bit too much on the throttle and getting nicked for 90mph +
This may have been mentioned on this forum before, but wasn't it James Hunt who owned and drove an Austin A35 as his everyday transport stating that it was, indeed, more rewarding to drive it at its limit on the type of roads he encountered?
There is a definitely a degree of satisfaction to be had from driving briskly an a good, quiet, twisty road using a manual gearbox, however, in absolutely every other motoring situation an auto is infinitely more suitable, pleasurable, safe, eco, smooth, comfortable etc etc etc.... A good manual gearbox is certainly a joy to use but anyone who has driven a porsche with PDK will tell you that a modern twin clutch/auto is just......better......😆
The whole exotic car scene is almost entirely willy waving.....! I can and do appreciate amazing super and hyper cars, but they are totally and absolutely pointless in the real/modern world. They are just demonstrations of wealth or status......
The automotive advancements made in the last 138 years have now come down to making things faster...! At a point in history when roads are crap and congested, there are speed humps, speed cameras and average speed cameras everywhere and speed is socially unacceptable it seems more speed is the last thing that is needed.
Perhaps an Austin A35 van is all anyone really needs........
An A35 Van with a Duratec, and five speed box with disc brake conversion would be an absolute hoot.
There was one displayed at the Donington Historic a few years ago with a V8 installed. They had worked hard to keep the appearance as close to standard as practical. A wonderful Q car.
Paul Costock, UK Plus Four 75th - Furka Rouge - Pip Disco 5 Teddy - 17h1 Irish Draught cross
