For those of you going through withdrawal of Scott Fisher posts, here are
some random quotes I pulled form mail that I have saved from Scott
(I have a directory full of nothing but his mail.) I hope they are
enough to tide you over until he gets convinced to get back on the list.
They are in no particular order and cover several different subjects.
Bob
---------Begin Scott Fisher quotes --------------------------------------
The last work for the day finished, I stepped outside as dusk began
to settle over the mountains around the bay. The car started on the
first turn of the key, blubbering slightly from too much choke for the
temperature; I dialed the choke in a notch and found my clear glasses
from the pile hanging from the windscreen tensioning rod, wiping them
with a shop rag lying loose in the passenger's footwell. Belt on,
brake off, reverse out of the parking spot and I was on my way.
---
And just as leaving
raw meat on your cutting board can give you salmonella if you don't
clean it carefully, letting the exhaust charge get sucked back into
the cylinder will reduce the amount of gas and air that can be drawn
in from the intake manifold.
---
We can still remember the way that car smelled,
warm leather, hair-jute pad slightly mildewed from poor seals on
the roadster's hood, hot Castrol sizzling off the aluminum cylinder
head; the sound as Dick Wells rev-matched the Moss gearbox through
its paces on gently winding country roads, golden swellings in
the earth nippled with dark green oak trees; the feeling of wind not
only through our astronaut-emulating crewcut, but all down our side
and back as the breeze of the Jag's passing swirled little eddies
up over the cutaway doors and tickled our kidneys and short ribs
like playful caresses.
---
But now its own turn has come. I'd almost forgotten how nice it is to
drive a car that's better than it was last week, to feel or hear or see
something that wasn't right two months ago, to hear it making better
noises than it ever has while feeling surer-footed and more of a piece
now that the rear axle moves only in the ways God and Syd Enever intended.
---
Advantages to autocrossing the MG: You're carrying on part of a glorious
tradition that stretches back over almost seventy years, a tradition shared
by people like Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Tazio bloody Nuvolari for crying
out loud. Driving an MG in competition is more than just starting out in a
worn-out old car, it's a symbol of rebellion against authority and convention,
the automotive equivalent of a little guy with a sling and an attitude
squaring off against the toughest opponent his enemies can offer.
---
Egan's never mentioned it, but I'm sure
he'll know what I mean when I say we now share The Paddock Walk -- the
loping, easy shamble of someone in Nomex and driving shoes, a walk that
falls perhaps just short of a swagger but that wouldn't be out of place
on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in combat or the gantry of a
space craft. The shoulders swing just a little, the weight rolls easily
onto the balls of the feet, the hips kick the legs out just so -- not
enough to be a challenge, just enough to prove you're ready for anything.
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