comparisons

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Will Owen, a master of understatement on occasion, writes of the magazine
"Classic & Sports Car" that "those of us to whom a nice old crock is at least
an object of affection, if not of desire, can spend a happy fifteen minutes or
so contemplating the compared behaviors of, say, a Jowett Jupiter, a Singer
Ten, and two or three other vehicles that were being sold at the same time to
the same public. And yes, Alfas do show up there on occasion, as do other
Italians."

Alfas do show up there on occasion, as do other Italians. Uh-huh. The August
issue has the Giulia Super vs BMW 2002, plus a Mercedes V8 cabrio vs a Rolls
Corniche ragtop; the July issue compares ten relatively affordable relatively
recent Ferraris; the June issue, a Sprint GT, 1750 GTV, and 2000 GTV, with
healthy sidebars on the Juniors and GTA in context. Many of their comparisons
seem deliberately quixotic, but not bereft of interest; two earlier this year
were a Fiat Dino, Aston DBS, Jag E, and MGC-GT, and a Ferrari Dino, Porsche
911 and Datsun 240Z. Their auction market coverage is a fair substitute
fractional analog of Keith Martin's Market Letter, and their couple of hundred
pages of advertising are an equally fair substitute fraction analog of
Hemming's, if you can visualize Hemming's with color illustrations on good
paper . Their monthly price guide isn't as complete as the one in
Quatroruotte, but still useful for dreaming. There is also a neat "One You Can
Buy" featurette reviewing used cars currently on the market; this month's
selections include a Fiat 130 coupe, Triumph Stag, Porsche 911 turbo and, just
for Biba, a 1936 Riley Kestrel saloon. It is not the cheapest magazine around,
but as Will suggests can often be worth spending fifteen minutes or so at the
magazine rack, given the comforts of today's more hospitable bookstores.

Cheers

John H.
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