Comments by "TheThirdMan" (@thethirdman225) on "Number 27" channel.

  1. Recognised it immediately. Those wide, tall, rear tyres and the front that looks like it came from a Lamborghini Espada… it could only be a Mangusta.
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  2.  @Number27  I think they only paid £10,000 max for each, didn’t they?
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  3. Best looking Spyder of its era, IMHO.
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  4. Oh Jack, you nailed it with this one. I’d probably rather have this than a Daytona, if I’m honest, thought I’d prefer the knock-on hub Borannis over the alloy wheels. Disappointing to hear that the steering is vague. Maybe that’s been magnified by an overly harsh rear end? I’d want to get that sorted but I suppose there’s only so much you can do with recirculating ball steering. You have to wonder why they chose it over rack and pinion. The Ghibli Spyder might be my all time favourite. Hard to say. Never been a huge fan of the coupe but the Spyder is simply gorgeous. Maseratis of that era were ne plus ultra for me.
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  5. ‘Nother Aussie here!
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  6. I don’t think either the Silhouette or Jalpa was anywhere near as attractive as the Urraco.
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  7. There’s more to life than automotive greatness. The media had nowt to do with it.
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  8. We’re any of you even alive when this car came out?
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  9. How tall are you, Jack? You seem to be tallish but you fit in an Italian sportscar.
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  10. I nearly bought one. The problem I had was that, at 190+ cms, I was a bit too big for it. I drove several examples - none as pristine as this - and all had something wrong with them or had been fixed recently. The most common problem seemed to be the coolant pipes from the front radiator to the rear engine. I understand these were difficult to replace. It was also very, very small. I had the impression that even a small collision would be a mort. My eyes seemed to be at the same level as bottom of most people's window line, which was a bitintimidatintg. Once I got away from that though, it was a lot of fun. I thought the chassis was great. It just seemed to go where you pointed it and I'd have loved to take it on a really twisty road because it just seemed to be made for it. I never pushed it hard enough to get the tail out but I had the feeling it could cope with that really well. I felt the gearbox let it down. It just lacked the kind of precision and snap that I was expecting of a mid-engined boy racer's car. Gianni Agnelli had one for his own personal transport. Apparently the thinking at FIAT at the time was that it was the best protection he had against terrorist groups, like the Red Brigade in the 1979s. Agnelli was undoubtedly a target at a time when several prominent industrialists - and even former Prime Minister, Aldo Moro - were murdered. Few cars could keep up with a determinedly-driven X1/9 around town. Its dynamics, like the insanely small Lotus Europa, were thought to be just too good.
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  11. I’ve never liked the looks of the Bentley. The only thing wrong with the Strength Through Joy Wagen is the rear quarter windows in the rear doors.
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  12. 8:14 I assume you mean they replaced the racing flat plane crank for a cross plane for the road?
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  13. How does it drive, Jack? Also, just for reference, how tall are you? I went for a ride in one of these and knew that - aside from cost - I could never own one because my head stuck up over the top of the windscreen. Even in a small accident, I’d be killed because the windscreen hoop would take off the top of my cruet.
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  14. Sorry Jack. Give me a Silver Cloud III every time.
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  15. 8:50 Funny… I remember the testers raving about the brakes.
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  16. I used to work on a site where there was a Jaguar XJR15 and a few of us commented that the tail lights looked identical to a Mazda 929. I wonder what they would have charged to replace a broken one. Have a look at a channel called ‘I Do Cars’. That guy tears down blown engines, including some quite exotic ones. On I saw was an Audi V10 that had blown due to lubrication failure in the bottom end. The big end bearings spun, a conrod came loose and the piston touched the top of the engine with predictably catastrophic results. We’re in the era of disposable luxury cars. None of them is a classic. Sure, they’re great cars but who is going to be showing one of those BMWs, Porsches or Bentleys in 20 years? Hyper cars are a different matter.
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  17.  @goncalomoura8156  Got it. Designed by two different guys though, right?
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  18. When I first read about this car in the 1970s, I remember the testers saying something like, ‘It might not go very hard but brother does it stop’. This was accompanied by a head on picture of the car practically standing on its nose. These were Australian delivered Alfas but I can’t imagine there’s that much difference. I think it’s significant that these were the only reports I have read that say anything positive about the brakes. All the others are along the same lines as what you said.
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  19. Hi Jack, interesting comments about the high polar moment. I have always wondered about the engine over gearbox configuration. I watched your review of the Pantera and wondered if you had ever driven a Maserati Bora. If so, what were your thoughts on the relative merits of that layout. I realise that the Bora came out in about 1970 and the Testarossa about 15 years later but I thought there might be a comparison. If not then how does it compare with the Pantera?
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  20. Patrick Hostler The proper colour for Ducati is yellow.
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  21. I learnt to drive in a Mini. I always wanted an Alfa 2000 Spyder.
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  22. Haha! Excellent choice of music, for those who know it!
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  23. Very entertaining, Jack.🙂
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  24. 4:45 It actually looked a lot more like the legendary Lancia Stratos (also Bertone).
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  25. Hey Jack, how about a 1970-ish Maserati Ghibli Spyder (not the coupe). It looks like the big brother of this one (which is a gorgeous car, BTW). I know there are a few in the UK, even though there are only 125 in existence. The other one I’d like to see is the Bora.
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  26. The Maserati Merak was a 2+2.
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  27. The differences in power deliver mentioned at 2:08 are probably offset to some extent by the fact that the Ferrari is a flat plane crank, which should make it more free revving than the Ford in the de Tomaso.
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  28.  @Bamsebrakar2011  I think some Daytonas look better than others. The earlier one had plexiglass headlight covers and the later ones had retractable headlights. I prefer the latter. The Ghibli is a bit bigger and a lot heavier but I think it’s a better looking car. I have always liked the Daytona Spyder.
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  29. Don't need to. It's a matter of personal preference. @C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13 
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  30. Kind of a Ferrari for the masses, on the basis of this video. We all like to think we have the skills to get the best out of a Ferrari but in reality, we probably don’t. In any case, if you’re going to drive it in anything other than the country roads environment this car was tested in, the Pantera probably has the advantage. That said, I would have preferred the Ferrari. But since I’m poor and 1.90m tall, it’s all kind of irrelevant!😊
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  31. Same wheels too! 😁
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  32. 8:45 That photo was taken at the boat ramp down the road from me!
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  33. 6:10 That story sounds very much like the back story to 'The Italian Job', except that was supposed to be China.
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  34. Yeah... I think Bertone laid an egg with this. I'm sure it's good but to me it just didn't look right. They got it right with the 308 GTB.
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  35. You need to drive a Bora, Jack!
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  36. That must have been a great feeling when it fired.
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  37. The Professionals!
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  38. I can’t imagine that Clark Gable ever owned one of these. He died in 1960…
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  39. Iso were a Formula 1 team in the early 1970s. Drivers included Jacques Lafitte and the team manager was one Frank Williams.
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  40. I have always liked the later Alfa 2000 spyders from the late 1970s. I just think they had enough improvement to be what I would have wanted. But I'm too tall so it's academic. Neither has anything on a 1970 Maserati Ghibli Spyder though...😁 But that cost a sod of a lot more and was extremely rare.
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  41.  @joedennehy386  Smart move
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  42.  @laveritaforza108  Load of rubbish. How did the media affect this car directly?
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  43.  @petervankas1352  Not really.
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  44.  @petervankas1352  Corruption has always been with us. There’s a percentage of people who are corrupt and I don’t believe that has changed all that much. Perhaps it’s more institutional now than it was before but we’re also hearing more about it.
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  45.  @petervankas1352  Ha! Not bad. And how do we know this?
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  46.  @petervankas1352  So I’ll ask you again: how do we know about corrupt politicians?
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  47.  @petervankas1352  Britain hasn't been under a tyrannical regime for hundreds of years.
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  48. Just a couple of comments about the XJ220. First of all, while the customers wanted the V12, by the time the car came out, the racing cars were using turbo V6 engines anyway. So it was still technically running a similar configuration. Secondly, the brakes were race derived, which caused at least one accident. A tester was driving one through a tunnel in Sydney when he had to suddenly jump on the brakes. The car didn’t stop and ran into another. When he took it back the Jaguar people apparently told him that they were carbon brakes and they didn’t work until they got up to temperature. Finally, Jaguar also produced a race derived track day car - must have been one of the first - called the XJR15 at about the same time. I actually had a close look at one a few years ago and I think it most have been a kind of compensation for those buyers who missed out on the original V12. This one had - from memory - a 6 litre V12 and was built entirely from carbon fibre. The heritage was 100% racing and it made the most amazing sounds. The tail lights seemed to come from a Mazda 929 but that must have been the only concession. It wasn’t road compliant.
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  49. I didn’t understand any of that.
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  50. Gordon Murray working from the Colin Chapman principle that, while a powerful engine makes you faster on the straights, light weight makes you faster everywhere.
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