Now to take semi-seriously the thoughtfully posed question from davey that started this silliness-fest.
The first question would seem to ask what about these cars separates them from others in the way we presently experience them, for time is a major context of perception with respect to history and the relevance of critical comparison. It is, in a major way, our personal comparison of one thing to another which informs our preferences, and here we compare technologically developed devices (British cars in this case) from one era to vehicles of all different national origins and at all (mostly SINCE their heyday) stages of history. So, I'm afraid the question simply begs more questions.
It's like when the doctor asks how you're feeling, and you look him staight in the eye and ask, "Compared to what?"
I suppose what I'm really trying to state here is that the answer to what makes these cars what they really are depends entirely on your own experience of these cars. When did you first see one? What did you like (or not) about it? How old are you? Have you had a positive or a negative experience with these cars? OK, here's my own personal answer, but it may not, in fact it is surely not, the only answer.
I think the single thing that most makes these cars "what they are" is that they are not the result of overanalysed stockholder's reports, computer aided body shaping, or styling departments overlorded by bean counters. Now, of course, that isn't entirely the case. In fact, the extreme budgetary strictures placed on the industry required great compromise concerning developement and sophistocation. But in the case of these cars the response was to accept the challenge of the "formula" laid before their designers and do the best they could. The road was never smooth, and certainly there were failures. In fact, in the end, there was no real way to expect an island nation, trading for everything in this modern predatory world eeconomy, to make a stand in this industry. That they lasted as long as they have is miraculous, and is a testament to the determination of the English People. But I wander.
What makes these cars "what they are", and always has for me, is that each one , during the heyday, was far more the inspired creation of one individual or a small group of individuals led by one man rather than an amalgamation of synthisized and survey driven "product". Here's what that meant:
The designer incorporated into his creation his very image and vision. All his strengths and all his weaknesses were bravely on view and there for your acceptance or rejection. Art, created by committee, is generally crap. Most will agree with this statement. We like the individual artist to display his very essence in his work, and so it is with these cars from an era when the "Horse designed by cammittee" was starting to take hold in our own land. Here were cars which were still as much art as technology, maybe more so
This virtual soul of the designer was part and parcel of these cool machines not just in their visage, but in every detail. The immediacy of contact with the road surface felt through their suspension was more than something Detroit could not produce at that time. It was something they couldn't even ACCEPT! But, grip the wheel of a TR or MG from the sixties, belt yourself in, and hit those turns, and you're feeling what that one inspired designer WANTED you to feel. It was harsh, but it was honest and it was capeable
Now we have cars that will outperform them by leaps and bounds while carrying two weeks groceries without messing up your hair. That doesn't matter to me. I'm making my perceptive comparrison across TIME. Thes modern chariots are wonderful devices, they just don't inspire the sane feeling of exhillerated adventure, and they require so little from the operator.
So art changes, but that doesn't make me forget the old masters. In fact, it makes me admire and appreciate them more. Look at all they did with what they had...
When is a classic no longer a classic? When you crush it and turn it into a new prius.
Bill W.
Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon