Your Letters
Colour swatch debates rage while ton-up tales are told via Facebook
Winterbottom’s wedge
British car designer Oliver Winterbottom’s brief reference to the TVR Tasmin (March issue) suggests a raw nerve. As he says, it arrived in the middle of an economic downturn and was poorly executed. Most of TVR’S customers wanted an open car, not a coupé, so the Tasmin was hurriedly turned into a drophead and ended up on an underdeveloped chassis.
But the injection of fresh capital into the company allowed the chassis to be sorted out and fitment of the Rover engine transformed the Tasmin, now 350i, into the archetypal hairy-chested British sports car. With much improved quality the TVR ‘wedge’ had, with several reincarnations, a production run of more than ten years and probably saved the marque. Winterbottom should have been pleased about that. John Box
Gangland Barracuda
A smile crossed my face when I saw your Letter of the Month picture of the Plymouth Barracuda in the March issue.
In the late Seventies I acquired a similar right-hand-drive car in gold with a black interior and a 225ci slant-six, Torqueéite auto, drum brakes and no power steering.
When I checked through the paperwork the original green logbook stated that it was first registered to Dolly Kray, wife of East End gangster Charlie. Barracudas cost almost £2500 at the time, which was Jaguar E-type money. Egon Ronay had one, and Vidal Sassoon another. I should have kept it – GGH 2C, where are you now? David Fenwick
Praise be to Carlsson
This is my nod to both a great car and a great ambassador for rally driving. Sweden’s Erik Carlsson was a very talented and successful rally car driver and built his reputation driving two-stroke Saabs, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1962 and 1963, and the RAC Rally in 1960, ’61 and ’62, among others. Bear in mind, the cars were considered underpowed.
In 1990 Saab released a limited number of three-door 900 Carlssons in black, red and white. I get great satisfaction and joy from using my own 900 Carlsson as daily transport and I get a lot of appreciative comments. My thanks to Erik. Alan Wood
Colour blindness
Surely the MGB GT in Peter Welch’s impressive Canadian MG collection is Citron Yellow and not ‘Lime Green’ as you stated in the April 2017 issue? I should know because my first MGB back in the day was that colour, whereas one of its predecessors was a Ford Capri MKI which really was Lime Green! Chris Silver
Your first 100mph drive
On facebook.com/classiccarsmagazine 1953 Chevy down a hill. It would only do 90mph on the éat – Richard Eugene Crispin A 1987 Volkswagen Golf GTI, my first car back in 1992 – David Pujol Gili BMW 2002 SCC race car in 1990. I was 13. Drove it down 23rd Street in Independence, Missouri – Joe Fowler The car I learned to drive in – a Ford Fiesta MKII XR2 on a motorway a few weeks after I’d passed my test – Paul Valentine In my uncle’s Jaguar Mk2 3.8 – Paul Nicholas Dawe
Unexceptionally good
I agree with Gordon Murray (April 2017 issue) that the collectable slant on everyday classics is coming to the fore. I don’t want to keep banging on about it, but nostalgia and being able to relate to the car and its history is becoming more prevalent. This is why the Festival of the Unexceptional works so well. The cars there are those that people grew up driving, being driven in or were owned by a neighbour. Who can say that of a 275 GTB/4, Miura SV, Bentley 4.5 Litre or a Silver Ghost? As someone more qualified than I once said, ‘We love these cars as they were on the driveway, not the bedroom wall.’ The Unexceptional time is fast approaching! Marcus Atkinson, Hagerty International