RE: Pic of the Week: Classic & Sports Car's 30th
Discussion
Mark Benson said:
My dad's just given me all his old issues (from issue 1 to... well, I'll tell you in about 2 weeks when I'm finished going though them) as they're downsizing and my mum's made him clear the loft.
My wife's over the moon we've got a bit of extra 'insulation' in our loft now and I keep popping up to bring down another bundle of old magazines.
My wife's over the moon we've got a bit of extra 'insulation' in our loft now and I keep popping up to bring down another bundle of old magazines.
I also have every issue, but I stopped my subscription last year, because their title storiesstarted to bore me! Especially in the last few years on (almost) every cover was an MG or an Alfa or a Ferrari preferabily in red... I know that a magazine sells better if you try to cover a larger group
of enthusiasts but... and I am even more fed up with their stories like "10 open top cars for the summer", "more fun for less", "bargain thrills"... I hardly believe that they drive and test the cars for that sort of article!!
I would be interested to hear from you when you look through your "insulation"
wherethe good years start and end (concerning their stories) For me it's from +/-1997 to +/- 2002
cheers
Yves
JS100 said:
Best looking car there by a mile is the Esprit. Tragic that the manufacturers around it in the pic have gone on to be hugely successful and Lotus has withered on the vine. Wasted talent IMO.
Yeah, 'cause DeLorean and Alpine dominate the market don't they. If only Lotus had the foresight to develop a small, back-to-basics mid-engined roadster with an innovative extruded-aluminium chassis, then upscale the recipe into supercar territory with a kind of modular architecture based on the same aluminium technology, they might still be around today, not only making their own cars, but also helping other manufacturers out with theirs. Such a sad waste 
Bacchus said:
I also have every issue, but I stopped my subscription last year, because their title storiesstarted to bore me! Especially in the last few years on (almost) every cover was an MG or an Alfa or a Ferrari preferabily in red... I know that a magazine sells better if you try to cover a larger group
of enthusiasts but... and I am even more fed up with their stories like "10 open top cars for the summer", "more fun for less", "bargain thrills"... I hardly believe that they drive and test the cars for that sort of article!!
I would be interested to hear from you when you look through your "insulation"
wherethe good years start and end (concerning their stories) For me it's from +/-1997 to +/- 2002
cheers
Yves
Edited by LotusOmega375D on Friday 2nd March 14:19
Frimley111R said:
Slightly depressing. Lotus look right up there as Ferrari competitors. Where did it all go so wrong 
It didn't really. There's nothing wrong with the cars even today, and once the new range is out there'll be even less to complain about on that front.I think it's perception that's changed. Back in 1982, even though the country was riddled with strikes and we still made Austin Allegros, people still bought British and were proud to do so. Sticking up for the underdog was an integral part of Britishness because we believed in fair play and giving everyone a fair shot.
Nowadays we seem to have become a lazy nation happy to bung money towards ever-greedier monopolies in order to make our lives easier. If a firm makes a car that's the slightest bit demanding or different, rather than being drawn to it, we not only slag it off on the internet, we actually wish death on the company and redundancy on the employees in a kind of 'I told you so' act of social Darwinism. We want to be seen to be on the 'winning' side even if that victory actually hurts the country's economy because at some point we lost that gritty, sarcastic British sense of humour and adopted the corporate-American one, in which arrogance is 'justified' and there's humour in identifying and mocking 'losers'.
Interestingly, in other countries Lotus is still seen as a rare and desirable exotic, especially in America, where the Esprit always sold well - they even got versions we didn't, like the X180R racer and the Jim Clark edition. The Evora is quietly meeting its sales targets, it's just in other countries. Over here, we sneer at our own products, overlooking such important attributes as 'handling' and 'fun' and agonising at great length over how the doors sound when they close, and the sound your knuckles make when you rap them on some part of trim you wouldn't ordinarily even touch unless you were seeking to make a point.
Our motoring press has dished out all manner of awards to Lotus, but we've fetishised German cars, especially Porsche, BMW and Audi to such an absurd degree we're in danger of overlooking positive attributes in cars designed in Britain with British roads and drivers in mind that the German manufacturers don't even bother with.
Frimley111R said:
Slightly depressing. Lotus look right up there as Ferrari competitors. Where did it all go so wrong
As far as most people would be concerned, Ferrari moved on visually from the 308 all the way through to the 360, whilst with the exception of the Peter Stevens update and a few aero tweaks, the Esprit didn’t change a great deal in the same time period, so they went from being a credible 3X8 / 911 Turbo competitor, to something that didn’t quite keep up with the changing times . . . . Which is a shame as they were a good car.If they do manage to build the new Esprit, I can see it being a credible alternative to the lower Ferrari / Maserati products within a few years
Riggers said:
Telephone directory on my desk says £4.70 
Worth it just for the shot of Justin Bank's Facel II by the Eiffel Tower. Also some mega cars for sale in this issue including JD Classics Coombs MKII Jag, BUY 1 the Coombs demonstrator. Where do they get these cars from, they had a couple of Jim Clark Lotus Cortinas a few months back.
Edited by vixen1700 on Friday 2nd March 15:23
vixen1700 said:
Worth it just for the shot of Justin Bank's Facel II by the Eiffel Tower.
Just for you then Vixen1700http://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/general-cl...
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