> On Sep 29, 2021, at 9:50 AM, John Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 12:11:40AM +0000, Ken Waller wrote: >> Had my only experience in an E type coupe in the early 60's coming back from >> a race at Mosport, outside of Toronto, heading back to Detroit, late on a >> Sunday night. The car was owned by a co-worker who really knew how to drive >> it. It was almost surreal - like being in a time machine - so smoothe, quiet >> and comfortable - at high speeds the acceleration was like nothing I had >> ever experienced. We cruised at triple digits for quite some time. Fastest >> trip home from Mosport ever. > > A co-worker of mine (originally in the UK, but he eventually also moved out > to the US) eventually succumbed to temptation, and bought himself an E-type > convertible (early model, before headlight fairings). I did get to drive it > once (although not at speed). My most lasting impression is that the > (wood-finished) steering wheel was enormous - rather like driving a truck. > It didn't handle like a truck, though.
Yeah, they handle almost as well as a minivan. Some years back the folks at Grassroots motorsports noticed that their Honda Odyssey handled pretty well, so they took the Honda and an E-type to their “autocross course”, basically a go kart track, to get some side by side times. They also took a set of better tires for the minivan to see how close they could get to the E-type with a bit of help. It turns out that on stock tires, the Odyssey beat the jag, and with the good tires absolutely smoked it. OK, so after writing the above I decided to exercise my google-fu: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/soccer-moms-revenge/ I forgot about the 356. My apologies to the Maestro, Harry Pellow, but I’m not particularly interested in 3565s. Though they do end the article with this: And sports cars, we find, are about more than generating numbers—hell, any minivan can do that. They are about the fact that when certain parts are put together in certain ways by certain people, they become something greater than their own sum. Sports cars—whether they be our 356 or XKE, or a TR3 or an MR2 or an MX-5—are about making the driver feel like he or she is the coolest person on the planet, even if only for a little while. Sports cars aren’t about getting somewhere to have an experience, they are an experience, every time the key is turned. Go on a trip in the Odyssey, and you’ll remember the destination; go on a trip in a sports car, and you’ll remember the drive. So, I’ll yank things back on to topic and mention that this seems to be the Pentax strategy, focusing on how it feels to use the camera rather than entirely on the technical specifications. > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- Larry Colen [email protected] -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
