I have a Spitfire - pregnant lady story -
My wife was 2 weeks from delivering our second child.
She had a final exam at the university that evening,
her last day. Since our main car was out of action, I
had to pick her up in my Spitfire.
This was an ex-SCCA GP racer that I had 'streetified',
(bolt back on the lights, windshield, side windows,
wipers, muffler, passenger seat, hardtop, and street
tires). It had an A-6 cam, 1" front sway bar,
competition springs, and a diagonal brace welded from
the center of the roll bar hoop to the passenger
footwell.
I brought my 4 year old son with me, he was too small
to leave, and still fit nicely behind the seats.
We arrived to pick up my wife at 9:00 PM. I opened the
door, and we carefully lowered her into the car. The
roll bar brace actually helped somewhat, as it gave
her something to grab onto, since the 3" competition
setbelt would never reach around her.
My son clambered into the space behind the sets, and I
got in. Cozy. All set.
Start the motor, carefully proceed(keep it quiet, revs
under 3,000).
Short shift, brake gently, precious cargo.
Avoid the busy highway, take the back streets, only a
couple of miles to go.
My son is laughing, excited to ride this way. My wife,
nervous at first, is calming.
Unseen, ahead in the dark, a trench has been cut in
the tarmac, and badly repaired. The weight of traffic
has compressed the patch 2-3" below the edges of the
cut.
As we motor accross this, at all of 30 MPH, the racing
springs crash down onto the stops, the edge of the
trench catches the lip of the Thrush muffler, and
literally rip it loose. bwahhh..BWAAAAHHHHH!!!
The crash of the bump, followed by the suddenly
unmuffled sound of the open exhaust at 3,000 RPM
explodes in the cabin, mixes with my wife's scream,
and my sons's laughter.
In the rearview, I see the Thrush muffler, still
trailing sparks, tumbling behind us.
Calming assurances to my wife that all is OK are met
with stony silence, though my son is still laughing.
We arrive, and we manage to extricate wife and unborn
child from the car.
"I will never, EVER, set foot in that %$#@ car again
as long as I live!"
And she never did.
The child was born with no complications.
Carter Shore
--- Richard B Gosling <Gosling_Richard_B@perkins.com>
wrote:
>
>
> I know that this last one is unfeasible - by the
> time my wife was even half-way
> through her pregnancy there was no way she could
> get in and out of Daffy, and
> if I'd suggested driving her to the hospital in
> Daffy with her in labour I
> doubt I'd have lived long enough to witness the
> birth!
>
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