When I was a kid in Ireland in the 1980s Austin did not translate to sexy. An Austin on the road meant a crappy little granny-Metro, a rusted out Allegro or a boring as feck Montego. So when I see a car like an Austin-Healey Sprite, I can't help but think "where they hell did BMC go wrong?"
This Mark I Sprite, the bugeye, was parked right across the road from the Lotus 7 look-a-like. I'd bet the two owners were out together enjoying the open top driving and the weather in KC is perfect for it this week. And in the same area were two showroom perfect examples of a Miata and a convertible Corvette.
Power-wise the Sprite would be left behind by all these cars, including the Miata, but sitting still on a beautiful sunny day, the Sprite wins all the prizes.
There were no badges on this little yellow beauty, so I couldn't tell if it was a Caterham, Westfield or other "kit car" as they are classified over here. But no matter what it was, it's Colin Chapman's Lotus 7: the ultimate expression of performance through light-weight
I saw this one in Brookside, Kansas City, with a touch of Americana on this English go-kart by the addition of a hood scoop. The scoop takes away from the pure lines of the 7, but no matter what it looks like, it's keeping the tradition alive.
The scoop leads me to believe it might be a SUPERSTALKER, which I'd never heard of until I did a minute of research. According to their website you can build one for about $18,000. The cheapest Caterham is about $28,00 sans engine and gearbox and go all the way up to over $60,000 for the R500. So if this is a SuperStalker it's a relative bargain compared to the English versions.
Looks like a toy car sitting between these two modern cars
Mercury, the subsidery of Ford, not the planet, has effectively been silently killed off this week. No one is talking about it, 'cause nobody cares. Crap, even Saturn had a bigger going away party.
For too long Mercury(s) were just re-badged Fords, which were not such great cars in the first place. And where did it fit in the family line between Ford-Lincoln-Mercury; was it a step up or a step down? Often they were a few hundred bucks less than the blue oval versions, other models were more costly.
The last decent looking Mercury was the 8th edition of the Cougar, but favored by cougars, not drivers, and that will always kill a sports car/coupe (are you listening Mistubishi Eclipse?).
The only Mercury I ever had a crush on was the Mercur badged XR4ti. It wasn't a huge sales hit, unlike the European Sierra counterpart, but when you are lucky enough to see one on the road today it still looks amazing. Sure, loads of gear heads had a boner when the 2003 Marauder came out, but it looked like a 1987 cop car. So that makes it lame, especially when you could have gone to the auctions and picked up an actual Crown Vic Interceptor for about two grand at the time.
Well, only the only person to blame is parent company Ford who decided the Mercury brand was only good enough for retirees who didn't give a damn how a car looked or drove. The kind of customer, who due to Alzheimer's is not even going to remember that they used to drive a Mercury Sable, or where they parked it.
R.I.P. Mercury, say hello to Pontiac and Saab in car heaven for us.
Even this commercial looks like it was made by a Youtube Fanboy.
I like to write and I like to party, but mostly just the writing.
Disclaimer:
A lot of these stories are true ones. The memory of growing-up in and around Killybegs. When you hold a mirror up to small communities, sometimes there are those who don't like the reflection. Capote knew this only too well.
If you find the refraction just a little too much and would like the angle of incidence changed in your favor, please email me at georgevial@hotmail.com and I will be happy to make a name change here or there.
