Monday, June 25, 2007
The Cockroach
Picture the scene: a line-up of lovingly-restored classic cars, like early 70s Mercedes-Benz SLs, roadster and convertible E-type Jaguars, a Porsche 356, a Alfa Spyder, and ... a Dutton.
A what? You may well ask. It's a kit car that was popular in the UK in the 70s and 80s, usually cobbled together from old Ford Escorts including the classic crossflow Ford Kent engine, and not forgetting the tail-lights from a Reliant Robin. It's loosely related to the Caterham 7, which itself was based on the old Lotus 7.
Quite a pedigree.
However, not quite so easy to simply stand on the loud pedal and see the Dutton recede in your mirrors, except on the autobahn or auto stradale, and that's not the point of a classic car tour of the Alps.
Point-to-point on mountain passes, a well-driven Dutton is very quick indeed - and the driver on our tour was in that class.
As the proud owner put it, the Dutton is a "mountain runner". Or a cockroach - they're both bug-eyed, ugly, and extremely hard to kill: the Dutton is made from fiberglass. It's also fast, just like a 'roach, and in the case of the Dutton we had on the Alpentour, it even had the mottled orange/brown color. Here's a picture of an American cockroach - unfortunately we didn't take any of the actual Dutton but I'm also linking to a similar one...
A what? You may well ask. It's a kit car that was popular in the UK in the 70s and 80s, usually cobbled together from old Ford Escorts including the classic crossflow Ford Kent engine, and not forgetting the tail-lights from a Reliant Robin. It's loosely related to the Caterham 7, which itself was based on the old Lotus 7.
Quite a pedigree.
However, not quite so easy to simply stand on the loud pedal and see the Dutton recede in your mirrors, except on the autobahn or auto stradale, and that's not the point of a classic car tour of the Alps.
Point-to-point on mountain passes, a well-driven Dutton is very quick indeed - and the driver on our tour was in that class.
As the proud owner put it, the Dutton is a "mountain runner". Or a cockroach - they're both bug-eyed, ugly, and extremely hard to kill: the Dutton is made from fiberglass. It's also fast, just like a 'roach, and in the case of the Dutton we had on the Alpentour, it even had the mottled orange/brown color. Here's a picture of an American cockroach - unfortunately we didn't take any of the actual Dutton but I'm also linking to a similar one...
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
# posted by Nesjo : 12:24
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