De L 39;amour 1964

[Kenya Ahyet]

CuriouslyPorsche sent along two airline tickets for a Lufthansa flight to Cologne. We inquired as to why they did not offer us tickets to Stuttgart since that is considerably nearer to where Porsche make their Porsches. The answer was that we would collect a test car from a dealer in Cologne. It would appear that going about things the wrong way is a Porsche tradition. I shall return to this matter of strange arrangements in due course.

Let us return to the matter of strange arrangements without much further ado. In drawing up the design for their new car, Porsche have made it like the old car. Thus the Swabians have demonstrated a typical local character flaw.

From the inside, the Porsche is cramped and inhospitable. Worse than a Morgan, in fact. From the outside, the new Porsche is not much to look at, resembling nothing if not a Porsche 356 seen in a tame fair-ground mirror. I would very much hope that the engineers at Porsche try a little originality next time around. It is, after all, 1964 and the previous car was on sale for nigh on fifteen years. One wonders how much longer they will continue to plough this dismal furrow before learning that one must always stay up-to-date in the world of motor cars.

As I say, it is 1964 and air-cooling is as modern as horse feed and steam power. Since there is no hot water to warm air coming into the cabin, the car is fitted with a Webasto petrol-fired air-heater. There was an odd smell of petrol when we started the car but Herr Fleischauer said this was due to an adjustment problem and would be fixed the next day. Our test car was painted a peculiar Rowntree brown and came equipped with tinted glass, Blaupunkt radio, and a Hirschmann antenna.

With Land-Windermere trailing grimly behind in a rusting Mercedes-Benz we set off back to the centre of Cologne to find some supper. We parked the Porsche in front of the imposing and rather grimy cathedral and espied another beer-hall to which we repaired. This time Land-Windermere tucked into a roasted pork hock with some excellent pickled cabbage while I helped myself to something called (in German) half a chicken which turned out to be a ham sandwich. I had another ten local brews (the glasses are tiny).The schnaps is also first rate and very inexpensive.

If we slowly process the above food for thought, could it have been,

in hindsight, that the entire 911 myth was based on selling

(cunningly disguised) antique racing cars? What with

their charm & character essentially stemming from

their half-a-century old dynamics, yet their image

being carefully authenticated by the incredibly

creative advertising?

The answer is yes. After the war, Austin bought the Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury, North London. Until 1968 Vanden Plas created large coachbuilt sedans, limousines, hearses, and ambulances on the Austin A-135 chassis. For many years the Kingsbury works were the largest custom coachbuilding facility in the UK.

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Brian Friel, n en 1929 en Irlande du Nord, est l'auteur de plusieurs oeuvres radiophoniques ainsi que d'une douzaines de pices pour le thtre, donnes Belfast, Dublin, Londres, New York, et l'un des plus clbres parmi les dramaturges anglophones d'aujourd'hui. On trouvera, runis ici sous l'gide du Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Irlandaises de l'Universit de Lille III dont Friel a t l'invit, trois titres : Philadelphie, mon amour (1964) o un jeune homme, la veille d'migrer, passe en revue, avec l'aide de son double, les raisons de son attachements sa terre natale et de ses dgots pour celle-ci et projette son angoisse d'un avenir incertain. Les amours de Cass McGuire (1966), dialogue - avec les spectateurs, les habitants d'un hospice, sa famille et son moi - d'une vieille irlandaise de retour des tats-Unis, qui prsente la situation inverse : les retrouvailles attendues avec le pays. Mais il y a loin de la coupe aux lvres et du clich la ralit. Les saisons de l'amour (1967). Qui gagne ici? Les tres de Printemps? Mais ils ne danseront mme pas jusqu' l't. Ceux qui acceptent, alors, les demi-teintes des compromis de l'automne? La question, celle-l comme bien d'autres, est pose mais c'est au lecteur-spectateur d'y rpondre ; le thtre de Friel ne prsente pas de thse, c'est un thtre de devenir et de mouvance, un prcaire et merveilleux quilibre entre les certitudes et le dsespoir, le rire et les larmes, dans une forme neuve et pourtant minemment accessible.

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