Discussion
nicanary said:
They just said that the Jaguar XK120 cost in today's money about £36k - now that was what I call a bargain.
It was just so much better than anything else on the road - today you have to pay twice that for the comparable experience.
And the rest. OK, the ones that went to Le Man's in 1950 might have been tweaked a little, but if the clutch hadn't given out they might have one Le Mans in one.It was just so much better than anything else on the road - today you have to pay twice that for the comparable experience.
LotusOmega375D said:
An XK140 and XK150 sneaked into the XK120 segment.
Did anyone else notice the brief interior shot in a Rover P4 towards the end of the programme? Nit picking, though. It was a good programme and surprisingly accurate after what we have come to expect from TV in recent times. Good to hear some Raymond Baxter commentary, too.mph said:
Not a bad effort and for the most part quite accurate.
I can't help feeling a bit sad that we went from those glory days to zero in such a short time.
I felt the same.I can't help feeling a bit sad that we went from those glory days to zero in such a short time.
I particularly felt it on a recent trip to Gaydon where an example of the "first" BMW is on display - the Dixi (based on an Austin 7 kit of parts). The first Datsun/Nissan was also built from an Austin 7 kit of parts. Compare BMW/Nissan with what we have left here today ...
Am I correct in saying the US "Jeep" was also originally based on a British car?
Surprised that Lotus didn't even get a mention for either 7, Elite or more obviously Elan. Even the venerable MGB seemed to be squeezed in at the end as an afterthought.
Also what was that ghastly red E-Type they kept showing? That bloated rear end made it looked like a kit-car! Odd considering that I understand principal pundit Quentin Willson owns a perfectly restored Flat Floor model which they could have featured instead.
Also what was that ghastly red E-Type they kept showing? That bloated rear end made it looked like a kit-car! Odd considering that I understand principal pundit Quentin Willson owns a perfectly restored Flat Floor model which they could have featured instead.
yes, I thought it was a pretty decent effort, compared to much of the lazy work we often see in such documentaries - there weren't many mistakes. They didn't really cover the reasons for the demise, although I don't think that was their aim.
In a previous post I remarked on the "today's" price of an XK120 - the Healey 100m worked out at £21k, which is less than many mundane family cars today. So are we paying for all the electronic gubbins or what?
But the best bits fro me were the old shots from the 50s Alpine Rallies - I used to pray for wet Saturday afternoons, so that some of the programmed sport was cancelled on Grandstand, and they would often show those old Shell films as cover. Did you spot the "near-miss" on the corner on the Stelvio with the blue Alfa and the handcart? That was "staged" by the film crew - the car was not actually a competitor. The official camera crews for the rally were not able to keep up with the entrants, so Dean Delamont of the RAC and Denis Jenkinson were roped in to drive the camera crews at decent speeds.
The roads they drove on over the Alps beggar belief - trying to keep up a high average speed on a single-lane gravel track with no safety barriers was par for the course in those days. Wouldn't be allowed today. The real golden years of rallying, as far as I'm concerned.
PS - anyone spot the cheetah in the back of one car? Belonged to Annie Soisbault, TR driver for the works, who passed away last week. I don't think she took the cheetah on the rallies, it was just for publicity shots.
In a previous post I remarked on the "today's" price of an XK120 - the Healey 100m worked out at £21k, which is less than many mundane family cars today. So are we paying for all the electronic gubbins or what?
But the best bits fro me were the old shots from the 50s Alpine Rallies - I used to pray for wet Saturday afternoons, so that some of the programmed sport was cancelled on Grandstand, and they would often show those old Shell films as cover. Did you spot the "near-miss" on the corner on the Stelvio with the blue Alfa and the handcart? That was "staged" by the film crew - the car was not actually a competitor. The official camera crews for the rally were not able to keep up with the entrants, so Dean Delamont of the RAC and Denis Jenkinson were roped in to drive the camera crews at decent speeds.
The roads they drove on over the Alps beggar belief - trying to keep up a high average speed on a single-lane gravel track with no safety barriers was par for the course in those days. Wouldn't be allowed today. The real golden years of rallying, as far as I'm concerned.
PS - anyone spot the cheetah in the back of one car? Belonged to Annie Soisbault, TR driver for the works, who passed away last week. I don't think she took the cheetah on the rallies, it was just for publicity shots.
LotusOmega375D said:
Surprised that Lotus didn't even get a mention for either 7, Elite or more obviously Elan. Even the venerable MGB seemed to be squeezed in at the end as an afterthought.
Also what was that ghastly red E-Type they kept showing? That bloated rear end made it looked like a kit-car! Odd considering that I understand principal pundit Quentin Willson owns a perfectly restored Flat Floor model which they could have featured instead.
First post here ...Also what was that ghastly red E-Type they kept showing? That bloated rear end made it looked like a kit-car! Odd considering that I understand principal pundit Quentin Willson owns a perfectly restored Flat Floor model which they could have featured instead.
I was involved in the filming for this programme. The original plan was to include the Elan, and I turned up with mine for the day of filming at Wiscombe Park back in April. The Elan was to be the last in the sequence, with a launch year of 1962, but in the editing of the programme (as I learned last week) they decided that they couldn't fit it all in, so they stopped at the E-type. I'm a bit gutted that the car wasn't shown, but we had a good day putting some rubber down on the newly surfaced track, dodging sheep and the local hunt.
They were constrained by the cars they could get for that particular day of filming. The E-type is owned (and the eagle-eyed will have noticed that it was also driven) by the great John Chatham; I suppose you wouldn't turn down an offer of him coming to drive his cars. The Healey shown was also an ex-Chatham car, and the name was shown briefly on the shot of the rocker box.
Since you missed the Elan, here's mine at Goodwood at the weekend.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wessexcarclub/8062487...
Paddy
Jukebag said:
I understand what was wrong with that E Type shown, the colour looked good and was nothing 'bloated' about its rear end; maybe it was just the camera angle which made it look 'bloated', but this was an ordinary S1 roadster as far as I know.
You should've gone to Specsavers then.! 
Edit: further evidence on this link. The owner's had the bodywork modified and larger wheels added which gives it that odd he-man stance.
http://www.etypeuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3833&...
Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 15th October 16:23
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