Happy Birthday BDA . . laddie.
It seems that us of a certain age must have lusted after these cars in our youth, and have fond, if not very good, memories of them in their heyday.
Yes, agreed.
I’ll be 69 next month. Back in the day (late 60’s) I used to be driving my Mum’s car and on a balmy Friday night we’d often swing by a car yard called “Sports Car World.”
The business was owned by Blair Shepherd, the local speedway champion driver and well know around the place.
We’d hang over the fence looking at the exotic sports cars of the day. There were usually a lot of MG’s, Triumphs, Alfa’s etc. with the odd Lambo, Ferrari and Lotus. In those days, none of these cars sold very quickly, so they’d often be there for months.
I remember being smitten by light brown Elan . . probably still one of the prettiest cars in the world IMHO.
But when the first Europa came into the yard, I was hooked. The appearance at the time were just so striking . . nothing like it anywhere in the world, though in some ways, perhaps a face only a mother could love.
It took me another ten years till my divorce offered the perfect opportunity for an early mid-life crisis . . buy a sports car.
Bought it from a young lady who was pregnant and could no longer get behind the wheel.
A back wheel was wobbly because, as I later found out, it had a piece of water pipe for a bearing spacer . . and the carb would rattle loose fairly regularly.
But happy days, for sure.
