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Should have bought an Austin Healey Sprite instead :D
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Rattle.
Well that would keep us busy here wouldn't it !
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But thats half the fun of open top motoring, having to get the spanners out every two seconds. I think base ball caps would look cool, maybe blast out some Guns N Roses at the same time, would certainly get some heads turning.
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My friend had seven trouble free years out her last MX5 - frightfully boring but reliable.
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"Should have bought an Austin Healey Sprite instead :D "
Funnily enough that was what Mrs RB had when I first met her in 1971.
She had one of the last made, they then made afew Austin Sprites before they all became MG Midgets.
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Another vote for an Hermes scarf.
Mind you, you may have to sell the car to afford one (though ebay is a good source)!
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£180 on the Hermes website.
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She does not want a scarf: if too long, gets caught in the wheels and she is choked to death
""Mother of modern dance" Isadora Duncan [wiki] was killed in 1927 by her trademark scarf she loved to wear:
As the New York Times noted in its obituary of the dancer on 15 September 1927, "The automobile was going at full speed when the scarf of strong silk began winding around the wheel and with terrific force dragged Miss Duncan, around whom it was securely wrapped, bodily over the side of the car, precipitating her with violence against the cobblestone street. She was dragged for several yards before the chauffeur halted, attracted by her cries in the street. Medical aid was summoned, but it was stated that she had been strangled and killed instantly."
www.neatorama.com/2007/03/12/30-strangest-deaths-i.../
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SWMBO would look quite the part in a ladies black Fedora with fetching white pure silk blouse, for the gentleman an imported 'gambler hat' by Millers from the US...most unusual titfer...i possess one myself, beautfully made and extremely sturdy.
Please please leave peaked baseball caps, if undesirables are the sole sporter's of such atrocious headware the rest of us can easily avoid..;)
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Baseball caps are too prolo and gormless looking. Panama hats are too grand. Gamblers' or Gaucho or safari-style leather hats will just make people laugh. Homburgs are too Neville Chamberlain, bowlers too Charlie Chaplin, fedoras too Al Capone, yarmulkes too Jewish, turbans too Oriental, deerstalkers too spaniel-like, Tyrolean jobs too jaunty requiring a tiny little moustache, funnel-brim Stetsons too squalidly criminal in a rural Texan way, ordinary trilbies in various materials (as worn by our leader) a tiny bit on the, well, hat side, flat caps too toff or Northern or gardener (take your pick).
I recommend a grey oversized anorak thing made of inexpensive man-made fabric, with a shapeless, pixie-like hood, as worn by so many of the fashion-conscious youth in my own area. Warm, practical, discreet, classless... the thing has all the virtues.
When will Her Majesty and her Consort set an example to the nation by wearing this ideal garment for these bracing economic times?
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When will Her Majesty and her Consort
I'll suggest it to Becks when I next see him at the shoot.
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suggest it to Becks
On a minor point of order PU, I seem to remember an imge of that smiling fellow in just such a garment...
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I rest my case. I have an image of him as well. ;-)
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Lud thats a city view only where a topless MX5 would not really be practical unless one possesses a particularly vicious doberman that enjoys being perched 'tween the seats and casually rips the thieving hands from street pick pockets or the underprivileged as they are now known.
A MX5 should be enjoyed in a genteel country manner in parts of the green and pleasant land still inhabited by well mannered gentlefolk of manners and reserve, where one's particular eccentric headwear choices would be viewed with respect and agreeable nonchalance.
The sort of place where a chap could smoke his 'condor' filled pipe quietly whilst idly enjoying a quiet pint of old peculiar as the village cricket match gently progressed.
Edited by gordonbennet on 13/07/2009 at 19:54
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GB
How did you know where I live?
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How did you know where I live?
Just a feeling in me water that you and the good Lady Bob would be at home in the reclusive land of the bennets..;)
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smoke his 'condor' filled pipe quietly whilst idly enjoying a quiet pint
'There be nooo smokin in the bar, zur... goo outzide with all them grockles in funny hats if I was you zur. Old Towser 'ere don't seem to like'ee much...'
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I have a desert cap - baseball cap with a bit of fabric to cover the back of the neck.
It even has a cord which terminates in a small crocodile clip to secure it to another piece of clothing.
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"yarmulkes too Jewish"
Ahem. They may be too Jewish, but they don't half work. Regretfully an increasingly lack of hair to clip them onto make them less useful as the years go on [sigh]. Even a strong wind can give me problems walking.
I now have a nice hat from C&A in Geneva.
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>>What do other lady and gentlemen open air motorists wear when their top is down?
Don't.
Tin top and air-con are far more comfortable, the car's stiffer and probably lighter without all that metalwork trying to cover up the absence of a roof. ;>)
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>>Mrs RoberyBob cannot bring herself to wear a baseball cap.
>>What do other lady and gentlemen open air motorists wear when their top is down?
Oakleys, a "scrunchie" and repeated and generous applications of Clarins SPF 25 sun screen or maybe 50 once south of Lyon!
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A baseball cap in the summer and a beany hat in the winter does me. Herself has a fairly large selection of various types of hat to suit almost any weather condition or occasion, although a couple are not suitable as they don't stay in place too well.
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A baseball cap in the summer and a beany hat in the winter does me.
Used to do me and SWMBO as well when we had our MX5.
You can't beat an early morning blast on a cold, crisp, blue sky winter morning, top down, heater on full chat on your feet, and a big comfy beany keeping your bonce and ears warm. One of life's true pleasures.
I love MX5's. I want another one, although sadly I don't enjoy driving the mk3 as much as the mk1/2. Sis-in-law has a 57 plate 2.0 Sport and it's somehow just a bit grown up compared to the earlier cars. A fair bit quicker than our old 1.8 Sport mk2, but lacking a bit of feel and directness in comparison. The reviews seem to disagree with me, and its just my humble opinion of course.
Cheers
DP
Edited by DP on 14/07/2009 at 09:28
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DP
Agree with your last paragraph re Mk 3s although I'm told a proper 4 wheel alignment helps with their handling, apparently not always correct from build.
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It is futile on a forum such as this, and rather at odds with the OP, to protest that people spend too much time discussing convertibles and other intrinsically worthless conveyances. However, it is necessary occasionally to remind those enthusiasts that there are sensible vehicles out there, and that the delusion of healthy open top motoring is just that. Better get out of the car for some walking or cycling. Sadly, a Stalinist state is not yet in prospect so the deluded are still permitted to buy what they want.
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Better get out of the car for some walking or cycling.
Are you suggesting that if you cycle you don't want a convertible? Because I do, and I do :-)
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Perhaps my screen's playing up, but one or two posts on here seem to have a green tinge.
The CC3 is my first convertible and I've found open top motoring to be tremendous fun.
If those on here who are knocking convertibles have bought one, run it for a couple of years, and found it not to their liking, then fine.
But I suspect that is not the case.
The CC3 - and I imagine the other tin roof drop tops - really does offer the best of both worlds.
Roof up and you would not know it's a convertible.
Apart from no room in the back, but then I'm like the majority of motorists, 99.5 per cent of the time there's just me in the car.
I could manage with one seat, let alone two or two plus two.
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However it is necessary occasionally to remind those enthusiasts that there are sensible vehicles out there
Sensible! Who needs sensible |-)
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I love MX5's. I want another one although sadly I don't enjoy driving the mk3 as much as the mk1/2.
Again, another car where the 'fun' has been tamed out of it... it is now 'safe' to drive... in my words - bland.
Dont get me wrong. Im all for safety, but as I have said before, with blandness comes boredom, with safety devices comes the feeling of immortality, with feelings of boredom and immortality comes taking chances.... no fun there.. just accidents...
now.. wheres that Mk1?
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Tilley hat maybe?
www.tilleyuk.com/home.asp?countryCode=UK
They have a cord that attaches around the back of the head and/or under the chin, I've used mine when sailing and even in strong wind it's never come off.
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Oh well scrub the MX5 2.0 SportTech my friend has on order and we'll buy a fridge :-)
Sorry but William Stevenson is wrong.
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There are 2 main issues here:
1 The freedom to both buy and use daft cars, and the freedom to point out that they're daft. At present there is no significant impediment to either freedom, but it's only a matter of time.
2 A minor degree of irritation at the notions that there is something worthwhile about driving for the sake of it, or 'pressing on' or 'not hanging about' etc., or that the occupants of a convertible are 'devil may care' unconventional types with the cliche'd 'grins on their faces'; they're just kidding themselves for the sake of the 'image' as the posts about hats show. Really, they're just driving about and may or may not be on their way to some meritorious activity, more likely the latter. I suppose convertibles are less socially undesirable than the numerous varieties of 'fast car' and could just be described as a 'fashion item', and therefore acceptably less functional than counterparts designed with an eye to practical considerations. All that functional compromise for the sake of some illusion of 'wind in the hair' with the ad-man's subliminal suggestion of 'healthy and outdoor' ? Yep- it's barmy all right, but fashions from Cavalier hair to Edwardian corseted constricted waists show the attraction of 'image' to the easily led. Get a roof!
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Get a roof!
On the whole that's what I would be inclined to do WS, for sound engineering and safety reasons.
Can't help feeling though that the rest of what you say seems a bit overheated and muddled. There's a sort of overlap between advertising images and your assumptions about people who want open cars. Apparently the only serious motorists are 'passenger-carrying device users' who don't enjoy driving and don't press on.
You're wrong about that.
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I wonder if WS was frightened by a convertible as a child. :-)
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...Get a roof!...
I've got one, thanks.
It's just that I sometimes choose to store it in the boot.
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