Mattias Bostrvm wrote
>I for one would like to hear more about the DB4.
The DB4 I called my own for a short period in the 1970s
was a 1960 coupe. It had been brought to Honolulu
by a family friend, who subsequently decided he didn't like
the car as it was a lot of trouble (to him) to keep running
properly. Plus the aluminum 3.6 litre engine didn't like
the hot climate, and you had to be really careful not to
let it overheat.
Long story short, the friend offered to sell it to me for
a price that, even converted to today's dollars, was ludicrously
low. I said I'd buy it, and he immediately turned it over to me
and bought a Mercedes (which he subsequently didn't like
either and bought a Lincoln Continental, which he did like).
I had the DB4 for about six months while I tried to
come up with the money, but even though the price was
incredibly low, it was still a fair amount for a guy in his
20s who was paying off a new Land Rover. In the end, I just
couldn't swing it, and he sold the car to someone
on the mainland for a vast amount more than he'd
asked from me.
I still look back on this as one of the major mistakes
of my life (so far). Today, of course, I can think of all sorts of
ways I might have come up with the money that I
didn't think of back then. I drove it primarily at night
when it was cooler. My favorite run was to circle the
island, which I recall took about three hours, give or take. The
two-lane road on the windward side of Oahu was perfect
for this kind of car back then, as there was little other traffic
and enough curves to make the drive fun.
The main thing I remember now about the DB4 besides
being able to pretend to be James Bond (although his was a
DB5), was the sound. I have never heard any other car, including
a few Ferraris, make such a wonderful sound. I was heavily
into flying by this time, and it was easy to pretend I was in
a Spitfire, listening to that DB4 engine as I drove at night,
even though the car had only half the number of cylinders.
___________________________
C. Marin Faure
(original owner)
1973 Land Rover Series III-88
1991 Range Rover Vogue SE
Seattle
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