European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 09, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday. June 9. 1980 Corner any car that made its i but in 1962 and still Sells quite Well on today s Market is Long past criticism. So this report on the venerable but charming and by now practically classic mob sports car is nol necessarily an exercise in what s Good or what s bad about it. As All car buffs know by now the to division of British Leyland was doomed to extinction last autumn when Leyland announced that it would put the a to my sometime in 1980. Bui cries of outrage soared throughout the civilized Section of the car world and the mob car and the my division were rescued by the Aston Martin consortium which purchased my from Leyland in a Deal involving some s66 million. So the mob apparently will remain in production for some time to come but it is obvious that the next step must be a much needed All new my sports car. After All the mob Model which succeeded the famous Mega 18 years ago can t go on forever. Be that As it inv the a is the Only my Model for Sale Al the moment with . Specs and i drove a new one recently for a few Days Courtesy of Larry Miller s cars International of Stuttgart. Miller and Ivan Chapman automobile co. Of Ramstein arc the authorized British Lcy land dealers for .-spec my cars in Germany. Act of Defiance the my brochure a very informative and attractive one states on one of its pages that driving the wide open mob is an act of Defiance against an increasingly homogenized True enough and one might add Here thai it took some act of Defiance on my s part to struggle on with the car at All in the face of the . National Highway traffic safety administration Nitsa regulations. The Nitsa s 5-mile per hour crash bumpers and their standardized height requirements were difficult to meet but the american Market is the Market for my so the Nitsa rules were met. The my brochure then continues with this statement in a time when it is becom ing More difficult to Tell one car from an other the mob stands that it does indeed standing out mainly because of its old fashioned look the test car even featuring wire wheels no longer available As options by the Way. There s also a Tonneau cover to tit Over the seats when the top is Down. And speaking of the top it provides the usual wrestling match and broken Fingernail experience difficult to put up and even More difficult to put Down. Traditionalist image you must be a traditionalist certainly to consider buying an mob and if you have this trait you la love the car and put up with its faults and idiosyncrasies. While most modern Small cars including those of the Luro Box front wheel drive variety will outperform it who cares one no longer buys an my for the reason he did in the 1950s and 1960s when it still had a performance image. What about the idiosyncrasies Well in Only three Days with the mob it stopped once each Day on the Road because a fuel Cut off valve was faulty. Designed to Cut off fuel in event of an Accident the valve Cut off the fuel whenever it pleased. Opening the Hood one then punched Down on the valve. This done one returned to his seat fired up the tried and trusty 4-Cylindcr, i Soock engine and was on his merry Way. The mob has three tiny Windshield Wip ers and they All worked Well. But the Washer system did to streaming water onto the passenger s Windshield but not on the Driver a the Guy who needs his Windshield clean. Driving to work one morning in heavy rain on the autobahn it was Nice and snug in the mob until my Pant log rapidly became soaked knee u ankle. A bit Damp in there old Chap yes indeed if of want in mob you must be pre pared of put up with this sort of thing. It was no different 22 years ago when i owned an Mega. The car was great fun in those sports car Era Days but i Learned to hate it when things went wrong with it As they often did. Looking Back however All of the Good memories today make it worthwhile. I also owned an my Isoo Sedan front wheel drive with the engine transversely mounted plus a Hydro Lastic this was in 1966. And the mg-1100 was far ahead of its time. The front a Eccl drive design with transversely mounted engine is now used by practically every major manufacturer modern examples being Volkswagen Golf Rabbit Ford fiesta and Chevrolet Cita Tion to name Only three. The do sign was first used on the British mini in 1959, and it came from the drawing Board of Alec Issi Gonis who was knighted for his Box with the wheels at the Corners creation. While All this has nothing to do with the mob sports car it docs give just one idea of How great a role the British have played in the development of the modern Auto Mobile a role we lend to forget now that the British have slipped so severely in the world Auto production scene. One can Only Hope they make a Strong comeback. But briefly Back to the mob. The car seemed fairly Peppy but pickup was lackadaisical. Needless to say the car was a lot of fun to drive quite steady and clinging smartly through the turns. The Gearbox was Crisp and pleasant to use the test car fitted with four speeds and an electric overdrive the Only option on the mob the overdrive costing $265. Zero to 60 Mph took just under 14 seconds while top Speed was about 96 Mph. The Rcd inc on the Lach by the Way is 6,000. Seating is comfortable there s a tiny jump seat in the Backbun with the top up the visibility is limited Al least in the sense of what we re used to in a modern design automobile. The setbacks Are fully Rake adjusting and although i liked the pedal arrangement a colleague found the accelerator much too close to the Brake pedal for his liking. That about sums it up. The Price for the mob is $6,886 plus $300 for delivery in Central Germany. If you pick up the car in London you pay just $6,886. Randy Barnett for Street and track porsche s new 924 Carrera it is shown Sabotc in Street version trim 210 he and below in rack form 320 he. The Ger Man porsche firm has entered three identical Carrera can for this weekend s 24 hours of be mans race in France. New porsche Carrera it during last fall s International Auto show in Frankfurt the porsche firm of Stuttgart presented a study that will be come a reality this fall with the introduction of the Street porsche 924 Carrera it. But even before the car goes on Sale porsche has decided to give the race going version a severe testing with three of the Carrera its entered in this weekend s world famous endurance race the 24 hours of be mans. In Street form the 924 Carrera it gets 210 horsepower from its 4-Cylindcr, 2-liter turbocharged motor and it zips from Zero to 62 Mph in 6.9 seconds the Normal 924 Turbo docs it in 7.8 seconds and it tops out at about Iso Mph. When the it goes on Sale this fall the Cost will be 60,000 Marks about $34,000. The Carrera it race car. Meanwhile has an amazing 320 horsepower from its 2-Litcr motor and tops out at about180 Mph. Porsche is developing the 924 Carrara for racing during the 1980s, noting that the new f1a regulations arc designed to reduce both the performance and the costs of production car racing. The move is planned away from the highly successful 911 Model grown Grey in thousands of racing campaigns toward the 924, so far inexperienced and unproven in racing porsche says. The firm will race he cars and also they la obviously be provided for customer racing even As the 911 models have been in All of their various forms from rally cars to the basis for the 935 Turbo. . The two seater British mob is now in its 18th year and it s still featured Mph the practically classic British mob b is now in the come Lible cloth ton. To. I. The e clot lop. The car s to ered by an ibo oct 4-Cylinder engine and has a 4-Speed Gearbox with electric out Edrite As an option. Its
