On Thu, Mar 04, 2010 at 05:46:24PM +0000, Drew wrote: > John Francis wrote: >> On Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 08:38:48PM +0000, Drew wrote: >> >>> John Francis wrote: >>> >>>> On Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 07:29:45PM +0000, Drew wrote: >>>> >>>>> David Savage wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> G'day All, >>>>>> >>>>>> Last one from my Fremantle night time excursion: >>>>>> >>>>>> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/disavage/4394082044/> >>>>>> >>>>>> Direct link (~170kb) >>>>>> <http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4394082044_f8db7b0e6d_o.jpg> >>>>>> >>>>>> D700, AF-D 50mm f1.4, 1/6 @ f5, ISO 1600. >>>>>> >>>>>> Enjoy. >>>>>> >>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>> >>>>>> Dave >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> Great shot... love it! I was a bit worried that it might have >>>>> been a BMW 0.5 series. >>>>> >>>> Which is a far better car ... >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> On a technical level yes, I could never deny that engineering has not >>> improved in the intervening 40+ years... but it's just another >>> hot-hatch, not dissimilar to the offerings from Toyota, Citroen, Fiat >>> etc etc... this one happens to be styled to take advantage of >>> peoples love for the Mini, just like the Fiat 500 and new Beetle do >>> for their respective followers. >>> >> >> The Clubman is probably the poorest choice of a new mini if you just >> want to rag on it - it's actually a pretty neat little box, and has >> several good design points (not the least of which being the choice >> of side-hingeing rear doors; it's *not* "just another hot hatch" :-). >> >> >> > I wouldn't rag on the car, I'm sure it is a fine automobile... Just > though I'd mention one point though, the original Mini Estate and > Traveler (Clubman was originally a designation of the front end > styling, not the shape at the back) had those doors back in the 60's > http://www.motorbase.com/uploads/2006/08/31/fs_austin_mini_estate_1966_rear.jpg >
That would be "Traveller" (for the Morris badge), or "Countryman" (for the Austin 7), IIRC. you don't need to tell me about those old models - I drove them when they were new. I don't believe I ever got behind the wheel of a Riley Elf (or the Wolseley Hornet). Back in the day just about every Estate had double rear doors such as those on my Morris Minor Traveller, or a Morris Oxford; hatchbacks came along later. Every now and then somebody decides there's something to be said in their favour (especially without a lip at the rear of the load platform, which is a problem with a lot of the ubiquitous hatchbacks, including the regular MINI). But how much of the choice of rear doors for the new MINI clubman was for practical reasons, and how much for a nostalgia trip, is hard to say. No original mini had suicide doors (or asymmetric passenger door layouts), so some of the design is function-driven. Still, at least they didn't half-timber the new car :-) P.S. There was a hatchback door version of the old Mini Estate. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
