Good memories. I had a girlfriend back then whose brother gave me the keys to his 1978 25th anniversary edition Corvette (4spd manual) for the summer when he went to work overseas. There really is nothing like driving a Corvette. I also remember driving an 86 Corvette, a 94 Corvette, and a 2005 Corvette. Give Chevy credit for building that same driving experience of the loud V8 rumble, and driving feel through all the generations. MINI should learn a lesson from that. Driving a R56 gen MINI should have the same sensations as a classic Mini. But it feels more "BMW refined" now. The "goKart" handling of 2017 feels somewhat different than the "goKart" handling of 2005. And the 2005 somehow felt less nimble that the pre-BMW Minis. Having hijacked this thread...getting back to my 78 corvette story. After girlfriend's brother came back and I gave him back his car, he exported it China where some Chinese official paid close to $1M USD for it and within 2 months went and totalled it.
Ah.. this just showed me something. This is an older garage (pre-migration), so there is no direct link back to the original garage. Hmmm.. have to think about how I can solve that for these older ones. Here is the garage link: https://www.motoringalliance.com/showcase/79vette.2781/