For your delectation in these trying times ...

Thank you for posting this

 

My favourite of all the Car journalists. I loved his later article on the Miura SV he borrowed, a duck egg blue one. If I could ever afford a Miura it would have to be that one.

 

I think he wrote at least two more. July 81 on a comparison with an Esprit (my first magazine purchased at age 13 for the Ferrari) and one a few years later about owning one and "why it had to go". I think that car was the same as the one from the Lotus article too.

 

My is fading a bit.

I have both still. I have kept that issue of Car in a safe place for almost 40 years...., wow.

 

((he shook his head slowly with appreciation and wonder and respect. ‘Buongiorno, signor,’ he said. ‘Arrividerci’ And then with a grin in the best English he could summon: ‘signor, you go more slow, eh?’))

Would that all my interactions w LEOs ended like this...

 

Wow... this dates me. I remember reading an Esprit vs Ferrari article back in the early 80's in either C&D or R&T. I can't recall which one, or the issue... but I'm sure Tommy probably has a copy.

Have always loved the shape of the Esprit; even considered buying one for a few days, before I bought the 308. Still satisfied with my final choice, though.

 

Funny to read how the sound of the exhaust was subject to critique. Some things never change (the critique, not the exhaust note).
“Say what you like, a Ferrari is still a Ferrari. In fact, the 308GTB does not sound especially good from the outside...”

 

I would hit the bookstores first of every month looking for "308" in the contents of every car magazine as soon as they hit the stands. I scored that one that summer which took half of my weekly allowance I'm sure.. Speaking of specific memories I vividly recall having that in school with me that fall in 8th grade and reading it (again) in Mrs Crall's music class. I didn't have much 308 eye candy at my disposal that early on except a couple of magazines and Magnum PI so I looked at that issue a LOT. In that issue there is a story about Jerry Wiegert and his Vector. I don't have it in front of me but I seem to remember him standing next to one with the door open and I think he was wearing some kind of jumpsuit. He had dark hair and I always though he was half asian or something, he just looked like that to me in that picture, lol.

Anyway fast forward to 2002 and FCA's National Meet. I was outside a hotel in LA waiting for a friend to come down from the room when I saw my first Vector in the flesh. I had a very primitive digital camera that was big and kinda futuristic looking. I was taking these pictures of it (badly from the lack of light) when someone asked me if I was with the press (you had to see the camera) I turned around and it was Jerry Wiegart - and I ONLY knew that because I saw him so much in that issue of CAR. That is the only picture I have of him. I should have had someone get a good one of the both of us.

We talked for a little while and I told him about that magazine which he remembered which was really cool to me based on how it was burned into my memory. Apparently he had some hand in the development of the Jet Ski. He gave me his card and I seem to remember it had a Jet Ski on it for some reason.

Anyway, that's my June 1981 CAR magazine story
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I have a stack of 80s Car 'magazines' in my loft because I had a subscription at the time. After they'd done the Esprit Turbo vs the 308 GTBi piece they ran a competition for an Esprit Turbo in the magazine. I wonder where the two test cars are now? My guess would be that the GTBi is still around and the Lotus is long since gone. I must dig out the magazine a check some time.

 

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What a fun read! I don’t have the magazine, but have been driving an Hci Esprit and a QV back to back over the last few weeks. Those comparisons in the article still hold true.




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Funny, many years ago, I had a Lotus Turbo Esprit HCi, and I looked at buying a QV (off someone who is now a fellow FChatter). Drove them back to back and decided to keep the Lotus. I wrote an article about it in the Club Lotus magazine (not as detailed as that one, but it did bring back memories). I later traded the Esprit on a new TVR - possibly the worst automotive decision of my life! Anyway, 15 years later, I again was looking for a QV, and bought the very same car!

 

Was the car in the "why it had to go" article not the same as the one from June 81 CAR?

The tag or something was the same I think.

Something made me believe they were the same car but maybe I am confusing "car" with "writer" because THAT was the same person.

 

Those cars always fascinated me. Saw on on display in Celebration FL last year. The Wiegart Vector story is interesting. Lots of drama...

My magazine, dug it out this morning.
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I think now I remember seeing the driver in the 81 story looking exactly like the writer of the "why it had to go" story.

I knew there was something that those two articles shared.

 

Ask Harry - he'll know