[alfa] Comparing cars

[Will Owen <nashwill912@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Only about two weeks late with this, but I've been stuck in New Computer 
Land for some time (you know - the new box is great, except that your 
old software runs badly, the new versions you did install don't work 
anything like the ones you've used for eons, and you can't find your 
damn fonts OR that big job you're trying to get finished). Anyway...

We've been invited to consider the Montreal vs the baby Ferraris, with 
the consensus being that they're both lovely cars but that the Montreal 
suffers from its 105 underpinnings and a somewhat underachieving engine. 
Well, it WAS a showcar after all, and the decision to put it into 
production has to have been one of the goofiest ever. Anyway, thinking 
along those same lines, I'd like to get some input concerning two more 
recent cars, both of which I find fiercely interesting, if not equally 
attractive: the last-generation Mazda RX-7, and the Alfa ES30. While the 
latter was never sold here, I see no reason why a dead-on copy could not 
be built and licensed, since the car is after all essentially a Milano 
in drag, and everything I've read about this beast seems to indicate 
that the results would be well worth the effort. And the Mazda, which I 
find simply lovely to look at if you must know, has been both praised 
and damned for its highly focused bias towards sharp handling at the 
occasional expense of comfort, a common Mazda "failing." As for its 
somewhat anonymous appearance, I think that's all to the good, if 
there's a chance you might be breaking a law or two on the public roads...

If anyone has some experience with one or both of these, I'd like to 
hear about it. We don't need to use up valuable Digest bandwidth, of 
course - a private reply or a posting on the offtopic list would be fine.

Will Owen
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