re: Driving desire

[Dana Loomis <dloomis@mindspring.com>]

Brilliant!  Hans de Kok's analysis (below) hits the nail on the head.  

To expand on this a bit, I would venture to say that few Americans ever
liked Hans' category 1 cars.  These cars were formerly more appreciated in
Europe where most, if not all, of them were built, but Europeans' tastes
have also been evolving toward category 2.  I remember a lunchtime
conversation with a colleague when I was working in Italy a few years ago:
this guy owned a Bertone 1300 junior (which he never drove to my
knowledge), but--in reference to my 75 V6-- said that current Alfa Romeos
were "too old fashioned."   He drove an Audi.  

>There are actually two worlds and type of cars here, 
>
>1. one is the type we all seem to like: where a car gives you this special
>kind of feeling. It has nothing to do with power, speed or whatever. Where
>maybe the 105 Giulia rules the world...
>Other cars might get close. 
>Problem for us is that most people dont like this feeling. Therefore the
>number of cars giving you this 'Alfisti' feeling is very low, and there are
>no modern cars left with this feeling, ( the feeling itself has become old
>fashioned). 
>One of the last cars having the feeling was the Milano, where journalists
>told you the car is old fashioned, because it does not feel like the
>competitors cars, which all reside in category 2.  
>
>2. Most people enjoy feeling 2, which is more or less an easy driving car,
>no noise, maybe a lot of torque and power, very light precise steering. I
>dont know which cars are the best here, (beamers or so?)