TeriAnn Wakeman writes >
> This reminds me of my first ride in an Europa. I was hitch hiking
> (back in
> more innocent times) and wearing a mini skirt (About 1969 or so). I think
> the
> guy stopped just to see how I would get into his Europa. Getting in and
> attempting to maintain a shade of modesty was an interesting ordeal.
> TeriAnn Wakeman One of these days, I'll be old enough that
> twakeman@apple.com people will stop calling me crazy and start
> LINK: TWAKEMAN calling me eccentric.
Gee, you sounded younger on the net :-) For some reason I pictured you
about 30. If you were 19 when this happened, you'd be my age.
This reminds me of a story (I can hear the groans already).
My good friend Terry Pitts has a number of interesting cars, including a
very late S2 Europa. His daily driver is a first-gen MR2. (Which he
maintains is a Lotus design, but that is another story. I only mention it
to bait Scott Fisher.)
Terry went to the local Toy dealer to look at the new generation of MR2.
A female sales representative in a short dress noticed his MR2 and asked
him if he would like to drive a new one. Sure. So Terry slid in behind
the wheel and she got in the other side. "Aren't you going to buckle up?"
he asked. "No," she said, "I'm fine like this." Terry thought about the
seat-belt law and physics, and determined that she was making a foolish
choice, but concluded she was over 18 and presumably in charge of her
faculties.
Terry knows a nearby curving rural highway intimately, day or night. He
took her for a proper sports car test. She started to clutch at the
vertically-parked seat belt for support, but never attempted to use it in
the correct manner.
"Does this car have ABS?" Terry asked. "I don't know." "Let's find out."
Terry checked for traffic all round on a nice straight open stretch and
blitzed the brake pedal. The MR2 stopped. The sales representative did
not. Her dress, however, stayed with the car. She wound up packed under
the dash with her hem around her navel.
Terry, gentleman that he is, found something interesting to look at out
the driver's window whilst she returned all elements of her self and her
clothing to their original relationships with the vehicle. Looking the
other way also made it easier to regain a straight face. When Terry
determined that the car was no longer moving about on its suspension, he
gave her a sideways glance. She was putting on her seat belt.
Maybe she learned something. It might save her life someday. And Terry
will be the unsung hero.
Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans St, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676 USA
h (612) 224-3105 w (612) 266-6244 phile@stpaul.gov
"Europa drivers are laid back"
|