Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Sounds like an excellent response to me. I've never had the pleasure of any of those. I guess the Sprite is at the top because it's the best "driver's car" of the three?
PS I considered putting one of my MG BGTs in my three, but much as I loved them, they didn't quite make it to the top of the list. The rear suspension was their Achilles heel - that and not enough oomph
The Sprite was of course my first car, bought new, too; so naturally I had a great fondness for it. It was also the car in which Eileen and I did a great deal of very happy travelling in our courting days. It was a lovely car to drive, as it felt light and nimble, though the quarter elliptic rear springs could sometimes give a slightly strange feeling. I expect it was something to do with the increased arching of the inner spring and increased flattening of the outer spring in spirited cornering. This would mean that the centre-line of the rear (live) axle would not remain at 90 degrees to the centre-line of the car in hard cornering, so we had a measure of rear wheel steering. Heh, the rear springs were very stiff too: and it was said that you could run over a coin, and know whether it was heads or tails.
The Sprite was, of course, a small and lightweight car with only 43 bhp, but the Jaguars were a very different matter. Both were much larger and heavier, and in truth the 3.8 was something of a brute, maybe with too much power for its own good, and the model seemed to acquire a bad reputation in the 1960s following a number of dreadful accidents. It was said that it was a car that needed an experienced expert to get the best out of it, failing which one was advised to serve an apprenticeship with a 2.4 litre version first! Anyhow I wasn't an experienced expert at that time, (but I am now, of course, as you all know
) so I did the best I could with it, while trying to be wary and keep out of trouble. I suppose I was a sheep in wolf's clothing with that car. Anyhow the only mishap I had with it was a little bump at about 75 mph, when I encountered a stray sheep on the A171 just before Christmas 1969. It weren't really my fault, guv; it was in the dark and the stupid animal just ran up an embankment and straight across the road in front of me. Apart from that I was fairly troublefree with that car.
The Series 3 Sovereign V12 was of course even more powerful than the 3.8, but it just wasn't the same kind of motoring; I'd now moved into a most enjoyable era of waftmobiles, and it wasn't the sort of car to even try throwing about, though I may occasionally have slipped a little over the NSL in it...