Thunderbird shootout.

[TBird1958]

 I really did enjoy that scene in "Madmen" in which an Englishman decides to commit suicide via carbon monoxide inhalation using his brand new Jag....... Naturally it fails to start 

[Pilgrim]

 I really did enjoy that scene in "Madmen" in which an Englishman decides to commit suicide via carbon monoxide inhalation using his brand new Jag....... Naturally it fails to start 

Perfect!

"Electronics by Lucas, Prince of Darkness."

[Dave W]

"Whereas all German cars had style. Like the Goggomobil and the Amphicar."

You try rebuilding your auto industry from scratch after you have just lost a WW and resources are tight!!!

My divorced wife still has the Jag E I gave her as a present on her 40th birthday - everything that has been written about the unreliability of these cars is bitterly true. It spends more time in the repair shop than a life sentence inmate in prison.

Having to rebuild the auto industry from scratch may be an excuse for reliability problems. It's not an excuse for ugly looking cars.

Dave Barry once said that we Americans admire the British even though they're not capable of building a car that can make it across a parking lot without needing a major overhaul.

My older son had a Jag XJ-12. Talk about a money pit. He was so happy to get rid of it!

[Alanko]

How about...



...as a great British aircraft design? That must take some beating?

[Highlander]

+1

[slinkp]

That's cool, what is it?

[Alanko]

Its a De Havilland Mosquito, a Merlin-powered plywood wonder. 

It seems like De Havilland really liked wood, as they build the cockpit pods of the Vampire jets out of wood as well. Poorly maintained examples tend to delaminate over time.  This seems very much like classic British engineering, a good mix of stylish design and 'what the **** were they thinking'?

De Havilland also made the Sea Vixen, which has to be their most brutalist design as it looks, to me, like part flatfish and part spacecraft.



Back to T-birds, I saw a link to a 7-string Chinese monstrosity today;

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=171881266163&globalID=EBAY-US

[Basvarken]

Ah, a valiant attempt to bring this thread back on track. I'm quite sure Ritchie Blackmore would be impressed.

[uwe]

There is no credible record of Ritchie taking an interest in aircraft ever though he was a radio engineer at Heathrow before fate called. 

I know that the Mosquito is widely regarded as a beautiful plane - I am dumbfounded why this is so, I find it non-descript! Me no like its front nose/cockpit styling at all. As twin engine aircraft go, I prefer a P-38 Lightning any day, that thing at least looked like it was built for speed. 

And of course this ... here, my prize, the Black Widow, isn't she lovely?***



Bullish, ugly in a good way, deadly.

*** Who said this where?

[Alanko]

Stevie Wonder? 

I think the Charm of the Mosquito is those two massive props on the end of two massive nacelles. It looks like a bare-knuckle fighter with massive biceps or something. For a nicer cockpit.... how about the long-nose Bristol Blenheim/Fairchild Bolingbroke?



And for ugly...

[Chris P.]

Talkin' 'bout Little Stevie Wonder. Does anyone follows him on twitter? Hilarious. There are at least three similar ones.

https://twitter.com/itzsteviewonder

https://twitter.com/steeviwonder

https://twitter.com/liisteviewonder

Would love to fly an old Junkers once:

http://www.aerosieger.de/news/5577/junkers-ju-52-zu-gast-am-flughafen-stuttgart.html/

 

[TBird1958]

 Somebody's Sea Vixen model needs help - Crappy decal job! Only the English could put the canopy off to one side! 

As English WWII aircraft go I think the Mossie was the best of the bunch, they flew over Germany with great confidence (until the appearance of the Me 262) daily/nightly, and I think it far more interesting than the much loved Spitfire. Spits got all the glory but were so short legged and frail, not the plane I'd want to fly at all.   
 Uwe, the P61 may have been a bit brutish but as I understand it, the plane was a superior aircraft everywhere it served, despite it's questionable aesthetic. 

[uwe]

"Stevie Wonder?"


Sigh! Here at 2:09 ...

[uwe]

 Somebody's Sea Vixen model needs help - Crappy decal job! Only the English could put the canopy off to one side! 

As English WWII aircraft go I think the Mossie was the best of the bunch, they flew over Germany with great confidence (until the appearance of the Me 262) daily/nightly, and I think it far more interesting than the much loved Spitfire. Spits got all the glory but were so short legged and frail, not the plane I'd want to fly at all.   
 Uwe, the P61 may have been a bit brutish but as I understand it, the plane was a superior aircraft everywhere it served, despite it's questionable aesthetic.

I had no intention of knocking it, I really think it was one hell of a cool aircraft. And that turret looks like nothing you wanted to mess with!

[Highlander]

I think Slink slinked off with that mention of...

That's cool, what is it?

 

Sigh! Here at 2:09 ...

Surrounded by heathens, Sir...