Originally posted by kadajawi The Manta had a bad rep in Germany... as in it was the butt of jokes. They even made 2 or 3 movies about it. The problem were the guys driving it... they were portrayed as young men with too much testosterone, not the brightest, ...
Cool car though, now it's a classic. Not many remain.
Hee, I wouldn't have guessed it was popular with that *that* set, (Mayb the European versions were actually fast or something?) but I always thought they looked like a car should. It was kind of a problem with a lot of the more lightly-built cute cars where I lived, (Boston) cause they really had a tendency to get eaten alive by rust with alarming speed.
Quote: I was finally able to drive the Jaguar F-Type R. Being passenger is nice... but driving the thing... it's heaven. There was so much drama going on that I didn't even notice the traction control doing overtime trying to keep the car from staying stationary, while everything else was hard at work keeping a straight line. It's an absolute hooligan. But the brilliant thing is, apart from the engine that is too responsive (think electric car, but with way more noise) it works as a comfortable cruiser too. Push a button, and it's quiet, relatively refined, with comfort oriented suspension. Push it again and it stiffens up considerably, and roads you thought were smooth show they aren't. At all. The steering sharpens up too, apparently it even uses GPS data to know how direct it should be. And then there's the noise! Ease of the gas pedal, and you hear gun fire. Brilliant. Comfortable seats too, though you don't really see much out of the car. The hood? Nope (I could raise the seats, but then it feels like sitting on the car instead of in the car). The rear window looks like it's far away. It isn't. It's just tiny. The C pillars are the size of buildings. And yes, there are bits and pieces that feel cheap. The GPS is... meh. The Meridian sound system isn't as good as the price tag and brand name suggests. But it's oh so much fun, but you can still live with it as a daily driver (if you only need to carry one more passenger and like to travel light). I think if I could have any car in the world, this would be it. Good looks, versatile, fun, and an amazing noise.
I finally saw one in the real world recently; white, too. Very pretty. (Though I guess if I were ordering one, I'd opt for a custom color, something like that putty/taupe color from old E-types would I think be pretty groovy.
) What really caught my interest wasn't the R-type, though, there's a version with an old-fashioned stick and a V6 with wonderfully-tuned exhaust that's much more in line with my idea of the 'British sporty car' experience.