20yrs old - 54miles

[Car-Nut]

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/cla ... arno/71783

[Moeregaard]

That one would fetch a bloody fortune in the States if someone could find a way to get it into the country.

I hate Ralph Nader!

[Car-Nut]

Who's ralph Nader

[Heuer]

http://tinyurl.com/cwewvh

[Car-Nut]

Very good

[Moeregaard]

I'll provide a five-minute data dump regarding Mr. Nader, because his activities really changed the face of driving in the Land of the Free.

Ralph Nader is a consumer-advocacy attorney who wrote a book, "Unsafe at any Speed," following a number of accidents involving the Chevrolet Corvair.

In the early 1960s, the average American driver was used to driving large, heavy cars that understeered their way around corners. When Chevy introduced the rear-engined, air-cooled Corvair to compete with the VW Beetle, many drivers unaccustomed to its unique handling characteristics found themselves in trouble if they got the tail out. Obviously, this behavior became more pronounced on wet surfaces. When comedian Ernie Kovacs wrapped his Corvair around a utility pole in 1962, Nader had the ammunition he needed. The fact that Kovacs lost control while attempting to light a cigar was apparently irrelevant.

He then headed up a campaign for better auto safety and finally got the 1966 Highway Safety Act written into the law of the land. His efforts ultimately led to the demise of the Corvair, and he had the VW in his sights as well, but was unsuccessful for a number of reasons.

What this meant for our E-Types was that the headlamp covers disappeared, rocker switches replaced toggles inside, and our winged knockoffs got replaced with what are derisively referred to over here as "Nader Nuts." All of this was implemented for the 1968 model year, and was joined by the first real exhaust emissions requirements. By now, Jaguar had been ingested by BL and they decided to adapt existing designs to meet the new requirements. The Healey 3000 was getting long in tooth by this time, so they elected to drop it rather than modify it to meet these requirements.

I suspect that BL management never really saw the Mini as being competitive in the U.S. and decided that it would be too difficult to make it pass the crash tests, which involved driving the car at 30 MPH into a concrete block. Morgan soldiered on until 1970, when they decided that as a small firm they could not economically adapt their cars to meet the U.S. requirements, which were getting more restrictive every year.

All U.S. enthusiast could do was watch favorites get slower and heavier, or just disappear from our shores altogether. By 1974 we had a national speed limit of 55 MPH and states who didn't enforce it vigorously would lose federal highway funds. Anyone who'd driven through any of our western states knows that anything under 70 MPH feels like moving backwards. By 1979 all new cars sold in the U.S. were required to have speedometers that only read to 85 MPH. The speedo regulation only lasted three years, but we were stuck with the double-nickel until 1995.

Over the years people have attempted to bring non-compliant cars into the country. This was most common when the air-cooled Beetle was no longer sold here and folks would buy a new one in Mexico with the idea that they'd just drive it back home, but quickly learned that their purchase would be impounded and crushed by U.S. Customs. They are also as willing to crush your black-market Porsche or Ferrari. In recent years they have relaxed some of these requirements to allow an individual to bring in a non-U.S.-spec 1968-74 car, but it's still an onerous process and some states have additional requirements for emission controls.

Today, old Ralph confines his activities to the occasional run for President, but the effect he had on automobiles--good and bad--is still felt. What's really odd is that the guy has never had a driver's licence--and there are also rumors that he doesn't like girls.

This was probably more than anyone would want to know about Ralph Nader.

[Car-Nut]

Thanks Moe very interesting..