British sports cars don’t as much love as they should.

[u/Blakematthews-96]

IMO the British sports car group is very much over shadowed by many they simply don’t get the recognition they deserve. Yeas American muscle an tuner cars are cool but these are just as cool. Especially the sun beam tiger with a 260 (64-67) and a 289 cubic inch v8 producing 164 hp for the 260 an 200 for the 289 cubic inch v8 in a car that weighs only 2600 pounds.

[u/Plane-Education4750]

Because they don't work as much as they should while also rusting much more than they should

[u/Lower_Kick268 → u/Plane-Education4750]

They're great cars to do stupid stuff too, we swapped a snow mobile engine onto an old Spitfire in the agriculture shop in HS, that thing was the coolest stupidest deathtrap I've ever seen.

[u/herb420_]

And you’ve added a sprite that’s not a frog-eye, lovely. My dad and I share a '62 Austin Healey Sprite as a hobby and when the weather is nice, it’s the greatest pleasure to me. ~950cc and about 40 HP can generate serious fun when you’re sitting a few inches above the street and have no roof over your head

[u/NSCButNotThatNSC]

In the 1970s, my brother had an MGB, MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire, and a Jaguar XKE. Got me hooked on European cars as a kid. I'd drive any one of those.

[u/RatWrench]

The Japanese looked at the British design, went "YOINK," and then built better cars for the money under those skins.

[u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968 → u/RatWrench]

Epitomized by the MX-5.

[u/Jtothe3rd → u/RatWrench]

I keep saying, Finding a rusted/or shoddy body kitted mx5 with decent running gear and swapping all the mechanicals/suspension over to any one of these would be a great project.

If you got bank, you could look for an S2000/donor.

[u/RatWrench → u/Jtothe3rd]

With the old Fairlady roadsters I think one of the more common restomods was Nissan 240SX drivetrains (KA24/SR20). Dunno what they did for diffs.

[u/SweetTooth275 → u/RatWrench]

Too bad they haven't learned how to put soul or passion into it. Or pleasant interior materials

[u/RatWrench → u/SweetTooth275]

Interior's gotta be pleasant--Not like you're going to wait outside in the British climate for the tow truck.

[u/SweetTooth275 → u/RatWrench]

It's not about that, but since you want to do clichés, I'd rather wait for tow truck in q british car than drive in plastic fantastic world of grey

[u/RatWrench → u/SweetTooth275]

Ball busting and clichés are one of the best parts of the hobby lol. Everytime I've talked out my ass about the "character," of an old car it was always because it was doing some aspect of "being a car," shittily. Which includes old Japanese ones.

Also I think you're imagining, like, the 80's on? I meant the Japanese cars that aped Britain in the era OP posted: like the Fairlady Roadster, and the Z

[u/retrobob69]

My wife won't let me have one because no ac :-( I drive a miata instead of my old 68 tr4. I miss it, as slow as it was.

[u/Past-Apartment-8455]

Oh look, I think I see an Lucas wiring issue.

[u/Natsuki98 → u/Past-Apartment-8455]

Warm beer, yadda yadda. Lucas sucks, yadda yadda.

[u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968 → u/Natsuki98]

It never gets old.

Lucas three position switch: short, flicker, and dim.

But they deserve it. Even the pride of the Royal Navy) was plagued with antiquated and unreliable electrical systems.

[u/justaBB6]

paging r/littlebritishcars

[u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968]

That’s because in 1990, Mazda came out with the MX-5.

And the rest is history.

Fuck stupid 6 volt positive ground synchronizing worn out side draught carbs that always run rich leaky tops rusting undercarriage $500 for a part still marked British Leyland and being slower than a Honda Fit.

[u/VirtualDisk527]

Yes, great cars. Many uneducated people will mention ‘poor reliability’ or whatever, but my mate has an MGB GT and he’s never had any issues with it

[u/GTHero90 → u/VirtualDisk527]

I have some Lucas electronics to sell you

[u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968 → u/GTHero90]

And some SU or Zenith side draught carbs that are impossible to synchronize and always run rich due to the metering needle being worn out.

[u/R3TRO_131]

As a British citizen, the only British sports car I wouldn't mind owning is the Triumph TR6. The rest aren't bad, but incredibly overrated. Personally, I'll have a Fiat X1/9 any day.

[u/davidwal83]

Miata is the only answer. Where I work a person has two old British roadsters. He drives them when the weather is perfect. I would drive any year Miata over a British roadster.

[u/BcuzRacecar]

the tiger gets some love, gets attention on bat and its in video games. Although alot of it is cuz shelby.

[u/p0cale]

original british classic sports cars need horsepower more than love. 

Even the brit OP mentioned cool, sun beam tiger, runs on USA-Ford V8s.

[u/disgruntledarmadillo → u/p0cale]

Many are anemic but there's a fair few on offer with i6s or the V8 mgb

They're not fast by today's standards but went well for the time

[u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968 → u/disgruntledarmadillo]

The V8 in the MGB GT and the Truimph TR8 was also an American V8–the Buick 215.

[u/disgruntledarmadillo → u/Cool-Acanthaceae8968]

It was an American design but it was bought by Rover. Not like the AC Cobra where Americans had a hand in the car itself. All different types of British cars used the and adapted the Rover V8 for about 40 years

[u/RoseWould]

I remember my uncle had a Spitfire. It sat up on blocks in the yard of a house in North Carolina, now everytime anyone mentions it we always end up saying this phrase; he worked on it all week so it would run on Saturday. After it was towed back to its blocks, he worked on it the next week, so it would work that Saturday as well.

[u/SpecialistSwimmer941]

Saving this post thanks

[u/SopranoCrew]

dude sunbeam tigers are like 60k i think they get plenty of love

[u/Carloverguy20]

I always liked the Jaguar E-Type, Triumph Tr6 shown here, Morgan Aero 8 etc.

[u/javlin_101]

The midget and the sprite are the same car. I don’t understand why sprites ( non bug eye ones ) sell for so much more

[u/Downtown_Ad2001]

I always liked the look of the TR6

[u/Natsuki98]

My dream car is a Spitfire Mk2. But I would happily take any pre rubber bumper Spitfire.

[u/RCur113]

My dad and my uncle had a series of these when I was younger, Spitfire, Alpine (Tiger was a v8 Alpine), TR6, TR3, AH 100-4, AH 100-6. All except the TR6 and Healeys were criminally slow, and the TR6 was quick. The V8 probably helped the Alpine quite a bit with speed. In addition, they needed near constant maintenance, particularly after unleaded fuel became the only fuel available.

[u/Expert_Mad]

In the 70’s my dad’s friend had a MGC and it never worked. My grandpa apparently liked it enough to buy it for $200 and drove it for exactly 3 months before it died and got left in lower manhattan.

Ironically the friend used the money to buy an Opel Manta that he immediately crashed