[Leica] My new car, a Morgan OT

[abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)]

I agree that the Elise is a real sports car in the old meaning from
the 50s & 60s. I only wish I could get into one! I had an Elan S2 when
I was in the Navy, my wife and I loved it. But now we need a GT so we
bought a 2007 Corvette. It's not light, half again an Elise or nearly
so, but it handles wonderfully, much much better than earlier models.
If you haven't driven one on a rough windy road then you're missing
something. Not an Elise but we can drive across the country with great
comfort which we couldn't do in the Lotus.

Adam

On Feb 3, 2008 8:10 PM, Henning Wulff <henningw@archiphoto.com> wrote:
>
> At 8:30 AM -0700 2/3/08, John Collier wrote:
> >I guess I am (over)reacting to the bloating and sensation-numbing
> >trends of the modern vehicle. Is a current Porsche fast? Of course.
> >Does it handle well? Yes again. However, though you can get a heavy
> >vehicle to handle, you can never make it anywhere as nimble and
> >intimate as a light car. I suppose some of this is due to the
> >emphasis on top speed: at 300 kph you have to deaden everything down
> >and add mass to make a vehicle even vaguely drive-able by mere
> >mortals.
> >
> >Perhaps on German Autobahns this make sense. However, I seldom top
> >the english ton and I want to have fun at speeds where I am not
> >lethal to myself and those hapless enough to encounter me. Give me a
> >vehicle where I do the work of keeping the engine on song. I watch
> >the road surface to manage my traction and braking. I stive to feel
> >the tires touching the road and the vehicle responds almost to my
> >thoughts rather than gross action.
> >
> >I no longer find this intimate connection in four wheeled vehicles.
> >It is even getting hard to find it in two wheeled ones as well. So I
> >run lightweight, small capacity motorcycles. Right now my favourite
> >is a cafe'ed 66 Ducati single with something over 30 hp. If I am
> >"on", it is fast, light and nimble; we function as one. If I am
> >"off", I know right away as the communion isn't there. I know to
> >slow down and wait for another day.
> >
> >In today's insulated, traction and braking control equipped, mobile
> >entertainment centers, you have no idea who or what is on. Heck, it
> >takes a half-an-hour of carefully ignoring the road to program the
> >CD player.
> >
> >Getting back to Porsches, I feel they started to lose their way in
> >the seventies. When brochures start to emphasize leather interiors,
> >heated seats and mirrors, when "features" started the weight
> >creeping up, when HP increased just to keep the performance the
> >same, when intimacy and control were reduced to make things "safer"
> >at high speed.
> >
> >Should Porsche drop its current model line? Probably not. Should
> >they at least add one real sports car? Absolutely! Lotus makes the
> >breathtakingly stunning Elise. Why Can't Porsche? Give me a vehicle
> >that is the spiritual heir of the '66 911s, not one that is a gross
> >caricature.
> >
> >Whew!
> >
> >Well I feel a lot better.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >John
> >
> >On 2-Feb-08, at 2:18 PM, Henning Wulff wrote:
> >
> >>  At 6:54 AM -0700 2/2/08, John Collier wrote:
> >>>  Only Morgan makes sports cars. Everyone else at best makes pimped
> >>>out GT cars. Don't even get me started on Porsche!
> >>>
> >>
> >>  I'd be delighted to get you started on Porsche! :-)
>
>
> Well, John, I'm in full agreement with pretty much everything you
> said. Which is why I had an Elise on order for almost three years.
> Then Tanya got me the GT3. She and I had waited and waited and been
> put off by the Lotus importers again and again, so she got what she
> hoped I would also like and what she wanted. In spite of my delight
> with the Porsche, there is also some regret in not getting the Lotus.
>
> I have been a fan of Lotus since the early 60's, at which time I
> couldn't nearly afford one. Not to buy and certainly not to maintain
> (early Elan). After I talked for a while with an owner who had just
> over 5000 miles on his (and gotten a nice ride in it) I knew for sure
> I couldn't afford the maintenance. The basic concepts still delighted
> me, however. The Europa and later Elan/Suzuki didn't appeal to me at
> all.
>
> Many of my friends at that time had sports cars; the usual MG's, TR's
> and Alfas and a couple of Morgans. We spent many weekends working on
> them. Not so many driving in them. The Morgan was probably better in
> this regard than the others. In the late 60's I was ready to dump my
> Beetle and get one of the aforementioned sports cars, and was getting
> ready to put down my money when the 240z was announced. I got one of
> the first ones, and it was a delight. As quick as a Jaguar E-type of
> the same vintage (the Jag had already been throttled by emission
> controls, and the Datsun hadn't yet - I got one of the very first
> ones in Canada) at half the price. A good GT car and fun on the
> track. But a lot heavier than an Elan. But not that likely to need
> serious parts replaced after a couple of hours at the track as did
> the Elan.
>
> In 1990 I got a Miata. An Elan copy that was reliable, but again,
> heavier. It had all those parts beefed up that broke on the Elan. The
> Miata was huge fun because everything was nicely balanced, and you
> could really enjoy yourself driving at 80kph on a winding road,
> because the suspension was not really more competent than the engine,
> and the engine could not overpower the suspension.
>
> Now the GT3. Over 3200lbs, which is 'light' for today :-(, nearly
> 400hp and nearly 12 in. wide tires on the back. It has pretty much
> the same amenities as the Miata or Elise, except for the leather
> seats; no traction control, etc and no heated seats etc. It's a 996
> so it's the last of those that doesn't have all the electronics. On
> the track that I mainly go to the Elise would do nearly as well, as
> it has a lot of tight corners, and the Elise is quicker there. Faster
> tracks show off the Porsche's capabilities. Both are fun, but on the
> tight track I prefer the Elise. But... I can drive the Porsche
> everyday and on longer trips. I don't drive it in snow or near
> freezing because I only have performance summer tires, but in better
> weather I drive it all the time. I can get in and out of it without
> crawling on hands and knees and without water running down my back
> when it rains, and I can carry a briefcase _and_ a passenger and even
> a fair amount of luggage.
>
> Is it more fun than the Elise? Not necessarily, but it's a lot of fun
> just the same and under more circumstances. It isn't a 1973 RS, but
> the fun factor isn't a lot different.
>
>
> --
>     *            Henning J. Wulff
>    /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
>   /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
>   |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
>
>
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