[BITList] Fwd: Why France still rues the day we ruled the waves - People, News - The Independent

[John Feltham]

 From one of y correspondents...


Begin forwarded message:


When I first moved to France I bought a book that started with sound  
advice.
Britain rules the waves – but France waves the rules.
More that twenty years later I realise how true this still is with  
France trying to hang on to its protectionist past, yet tell others in  
the EU what to do.

A few decades ago, the Monte Carlo Rally was surely the highest  
profile event of the international motoring calendar, where both  
drivers and manufacturers battled to win prestige and publicity for  
their make of car. 1964 was the year when the Mini Cooper first won  
the Monte Carlo Rally.
1965 was another Mini win, and in the following year the British Mini  
team came in 1st, 2nd & 3rd.
The notorious Gaul pride could not stomach this British defeat (what  
do you expect, they don’t play cricket).
The French cried foul and immediately disassembled the minis.  The  
cars were gone over and over, with the organisers intent on proving  
that the English were cheating.  Eventually they found an excuse and  
announced that the headlamp bulbs were illegal, and pronounced Citroen  
to be the winners.  This was the beginning of the new powerful quartz- 
halogen bulb, which at that time was confined to a single filament.   
To allow a high and dipped beam the head lamp had a double reflector  
with two separate bulbs in the same standard 7½ inch housing.  The  
French counted this as two extra lights, thus exceeding the rule for  
the number of driving lamps at that time.




ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.




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