[alfa] Victory by Design and driving classics

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I received my set of DVDs and have viewed the Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, and 
Maserati discs. These may be short on facts and maybe de Cadenet is not as 
good a driver as he appears to be but these discs are pretty terrific. It's 
a bit like having  a coffee table book on the marque but with full 
widescreen video and Dolby or DTS surround sound. The Dolby is a bit over 
the top but pretty darned realistic. I particularly like the exhaust 
barking in your left ear as de Cadenet "brews up" one of these monsters. 
Particularly brutal is the sharp snapping sound of the Alfetta 158 (or is 
it a 159?) with that two stage supercharged dope fuelled 1.5 8C engine. 
Amazing exhaust note impossible to experience in any book.

 IMHO, de Cadenet is to be admired for the way in which he gives every 
appearance of driving the wheels off these cars when he can't possibly be. 
He also displays remarkable versatility in being able to drive all these 
different cars from different eras with amazing aplomb, sometimes obviously 
back to back. He clearly is a talented driver, with an obvious love for the 
whole process of driving anything with wheels.

As for the miracle of the British cottage industry for repair of classic 
cars it should be remembered that most of these cars are tool room built to 
begin with. No big deal to replace hand made parts with modern tools. Not 
only that, it must be remembered that Britain is the home of Formula One 
construction which is essentially a "one off" business. Ironically, it is 
in some ways easier to repair these classics by traditional one off methods 
but using modern equipment than it might be to properly fix a modern 
unibody car with electronic this and automatic that.

Cheers everybody, and do try to beg borrow or whatever a DVD of the Alfa, 
Maserati (my favourite) or Ferrari "Victory by Design" before you dismiss 
them. They really are great shows for car lovers. de Cadenet is very 
respectful of the cars, enthusiastic about their virtues, and for the most 
part does a very creditable job of appearing to drive them hard under 
tricky technical conditions. Not that he hangs about but clearly he cannot 
both drive at racing speeds and give you on board commentary, let alone 
give you those marvellous chase camera scenes shot from a modern Audi. 
Really impressive productions. As for nearly stalling that Alfetta, well, 
they were notorious for having no torque low down and being pretty darned 
peaky powerplants.
Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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