A few years ago in the AlpineArchives, the question came up as to the
safety of the fender mounted gas tanks in the later Alpines, and if anyone
knew of one blowing up. I don't, but 35 years ago I almost sent myself, an
Army buddy and a Series II to the far side of the moon.
We were driving through the Arizona desert when I tried to straddle a
crowbar laying in the road, and knicked it with the right front tire. The
thing popped up, bounced off the bottom of the car a couple of times, then
hit and punctured the gas tank. I looked into the rear view mirror, and all
I could see was a fog of gasoline, and all I heard was the sound of the
crowbar being scraped down the road. At 65 mph. Much to our relief, the
bar dislodged after a few seconds. When we stopped, we found the crowbar
had hit the front of the tank almost dead center, about an inch from the
bottom.
This left enough gas in the tank that by buying a couple of gallons of gas
at a time, we were able to get to Phoenix, where we were to catch a ride
back east. I found a gas station that said they would remove the tank and
have it welded while we were gone. When we returned, the Alpine was fixed,
but very dry. I had not told them to gas it up, and they had run all the
gas out of the carbs while running it in and out of the garage bay. We
pushed it over to the pump and filled it up. Then came the fun part,
watching the look on the pump jockey's face when I popped the hood, manually
pumped gas to the carbs, and started it (on about the second time over)
without getting in the car.
If there is anything interesting to this story, I think it is the fact that
if the car had been equipped with the "dangerous" fender mounted tanks,
nothing would have happened. Well, perhaps a punctured rear valence.
Bill
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