Wanna spend 2 million?

A couple of weeks back I reviewed what you could buy for under 500,000 baht, and although there were lots of choices, there was precious little that you could consider worth being seen in without a paper bag over your head. Today, I thought I’d look at what you could get for round about a couple of mill. Surely we could dispense with the paper bag for that money?

The good news is that you can return the bag to Burger King and actually look with some degree of pride at what you’ve got in the garage. An Alfa Romeo, Audi or two, BeeEmm, Citroen, Honda Odyssey, even a C Class Benz, Peugeot 605, a SAAB or two, Subaru Impreza Turbo, Toyota Celica, a VW Passat or a Volvo S70.

The bad news is that this is the same as you’ll spend for a one bedroom condo overlooking the sea. And one bedroom condos don’t depreciate like a second hand motorcar, some of which will lose 50% of their value by the time you’ve left the showroom and got to the corner of the street.

Out of the 2 mill motorcars, one stands out like the proverbial dog’s danglers - and that is the Subaru Impreza Turbo. Unfortunately they are about as rare as rocking horse poo round these parts, but these things are really dynamite! I’ve driven a few examples in Oz, and with 218 horsepower driving through 4 wheels, they are just the best fun car around for the sporting motorist. And here they are only 1.85 mill too, so you get change!

If I couldn’t have the Subaru, I think I’d go for the 156 Alfa Romeo with the sport pack for a smidgin over the 2 mill mark. At least you get some great styling and reasonable handling. But it would have to be red in colour. There is no other colour for any Italian motorcar. One would also have it rust-proofed. Alfa’s do not have a good rep as far as Jack the dancer is concerned - and this is Fun City Pattaya by the SEA!

Poison pen letters?

Came across an interesting court case in Germany, where Volvo ended up being fined just short of one billion baht after Mercedes took Volvo to court to stop the Swedish manufacturer using the initials S, C or V in their model line-up. Mercedes claimed that they were the first to use the three letters, and their customers would become confused if Volvo used them as well. Volvo is appealing the decision. Volvo perhaps should have stuck with the P series, like Roger Moore’s Saint car pictured here.

Reminds me of the Porsche numbers case where the 911 was intended to be the 901, but Peugeot had taken out the rights on all series of three numbers with a zero in the middle, so Dr. Porsche had to hurriedly re-badge the 901. Trivia: the engine cases of the first 911’s are actually stamped 901. Climb under an early one and have a look!

The Sir Stirling Connection

So what is the connection between Sir Stirling and Automania, you may well ask? Well, actually more than you could ever imagine. For starters, your columnist here watched Sir Stirling run the DB3RS in its maiden race at Charterhall in Scotland and I even spoke to him afterwards as I worshipped the hallowed ground he stood on. Then simultaneously last week I had two readers of the column come forward with more of the Sir Stirling connection.

First was Kurt Farnham, who appeared laden down with photographs and press clippings of his racing in Europe in the early 70’s in a Chevrolet Camaro. He and his Mustang mates ran a team, pitting the American iron against the European small block technology of the time. All very, very interesting memorabilia. What has Sir Stirling got to do with that? The first picture he showed me was Kurt and Sir S standing together at a circuit in Europe! Now I know that Kurt’s a big lad, but goodness me, how small was Sir Stirling? I honestly didn’t remember him being that tiny. Mind you, when I met him in the early 50’s I was in short trousers myself, so Sir S would have looked larger to me at that time.

Next up was another local reader, David Dixon, who wrote to me giving me some details of his extensive racing and rallying background in the UK and Europe. David wrote, “My first race was at Silverstone in a Jowett Javelin and (I) was black flagged for baulking Stirling Moss.” Far too much of a coincidence! So there’s three of us, upon whom Sir Stirling has had made a lifetime impression. But what a lovely piece of reminiscence. Racing a Jowett Javelin would almost have been enough, with its flat four, horizontally opposed engine - but getting in the way of Sir Stirling too! How many more of you out there, I wonder?

David mentioned in his letter, the famous Steering Wheel Club in London, as well as many other famous names with whom he had connections. How about Pat Moss, John Sprinzel, Jim Clark, Bob Olthoff and Sir John Whitmore? David also suggested that if there were enough of us motoring nuts around town, we should meet for dinner every so often where we could swap experiences. You know the sort of thing - as the T-shirt says, “The older I get - the faster I was!” However, if there’s enough interest, I’m sure I can get Kim Fletcher to give us the back room at Shenanigans, formerly known as Delaney’s, one night. Keep in touch!

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I wrote about a modern racing circuit that had the first stone laid by Vincenzo Lancia, (Yes! THE Lancia man) but two days later all work was stopped for three months by conservationists. Today, the conservationists are still at it. (Who cares? There’s enough trees to go round, I’m sure!) What circuit was this? It was none other than Monza, where the last GP was held. Poor Monza has had all sorts of strife since then - and that was 1922 for all the historians!

There’s a lovely old Dodge Challenger round town, owned by Mark who accosted me the other day and said I should put some more technical questions into the autotrivia quiz. So Mark, just for you, here’s a techo question. What is a Sprague? And what was it used for?

For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct answer to fax 427 596 or email [email protected].

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