Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/08
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The R8 Gordini was a wonderful car to learn how to handle 'skids." We used to
puncture the airbags in the rear and this lowered the rear end and gave the
rear-wheels an interesting camber. It did improve the road-holding and as
long as the engine held up ('change the engine, keep the oil") it was great
fun. The Floride and Caravelle were very much 'boulevard racers," I.e they
looked good parked or slowly cruising along the street. Best car for picking
up girls was my 1943 M-38 jeep, painted a pinkish white (mixed white and red
lead primer, applied with a 2" wide brush)! The early MGA was also rather
commendable in this context, at least it had a kind of heater and the gear
lever stayed in the car! The Jeep had a problem with that, the bushing
threading the lever into the gearbox was gone and if you hit a bump the lever
would jump out and 'hopefully" land somewhere in the car. Oh well, what do
you get for $80 (this was in the early 60's). Later swapped the jeep for a
dilapidated 50/2 for a M2 (just to keep on topic here)!
Tom A