Well, I had an fun-filled trip to England last week, with
some interesting Britcar-related experiences. After spending
a week in Greece (irrelevant except that I noticed you can rent
Mini Mokes on some of the Greek Islands), I stayed a few days in
London, visiting museums. I then picked up a rental car, which
was a little 1.1 litre Peugeot, and hit the road.
Here are my official driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road tips.
I'd be interested in anyone else's experiences.
1: Driving on the wrong side of the road, per se, is not really a big
deal. In a sense, you do it here whenever you are in the fast lane.
Dealing with left and right turns, etc. was no big problem.
2: Roundabouts were no big deal either. As long as there is not
massive rush-hour traffic, they work really well. Plus, if
you are unsure of what road to take out of one, you can always
do an extra lap whilst figuring things out.
3: The main thing to watch out for is not driving too far to
the right, but too far to the left. Your instinct is to place
your body on the left side of the lane you are driving in, which
means that the car's left wheels are likely to start running up on the
curb. Avoiding this leftward drift takes some concentration.
4: Shifting with your left hand is hard to get used to. I was blowing
shifts all the time. Try it sometime while you are a passenger,
and the driver is working the clutch for you, and you'll see what I mean.
5: The roads are NARROW!!! and there is usually little or no shoulder.
Plus, everyone drives FAST, even on those classic hedge-lined country
lanes. It can be scary at times.
6: The road markings, signs, etc. are strange and a bit hard to
figure out. Ironically, I had less trouble interpreting these things
in Greece, where they don't even have the same alphabet, than I did
in England.
Anyway, last Saturday, I called on Simon Bateson at his parents' place
in Kent, and we went out parts hunting. We visited a couple of nearby
junkyards without any success, and then headed to London to visit one
more place. This was the house of an slightly eccentric West Indian guy
who bought, sold, and fixed only Triumph Spitfires. He had six in his
yard, a couple more in his garage, and his house was full of parts.
Clearly, I had arrived at Spitfire heaven. I had no problem getting
some twin carb linkage parts that were never on any car sold in the U.S..
I then decided to take a plunge, and buy an overdrive transmission.
After a slightly wild trip into central London to find a place to change more
money on a Saturday evening, the deal was concluded. For 150 quid ($290
or so), I got an entire transmission, drive shaft, and all the small but
critical and expensive bits like the rear mount, the right-angle adapter
for the speedometer cable, the soleniod, relay, etc.
After gunking and power-washing the outside, we drained the oil and
took it apart into pieces small enough to fit in my luggage.
>From what I could see, it looked like all the gears, bearings, etc.
were in good shape and it would not need a major rebuilding.
We wrapped up the pieces so they would not get damaged or leak oil all
over my luggage.
For the next couple of days I drove around the Dorset countryside
(very pretty), and visited Stonehedge and the more interesting
neolithic remains at Avebury. When it came time to check my bags
for the flight home, I feared the worst. I had two bags of about
50 lbs. each, full of things that would look REALLY strange to
an X-ray machine, plus a four-foot-long steel pipe that resembled
a really gigantic pipe bomb. But, no problem, they checked it all
without any searching, and they were not the least concerned about
the excess weight.
It all arrived in San Francisco Int'l. undamaged, and I spent a couple
of evenings stripping everything down and cleaning it, and ordering
new gaskets, O-rings, etc. So, in a couple of weeks, I should have
the thing installed, and have the pleasure of cruising down the freeway
in overdrive, without the engine sounding like it is about to explode.
Doug Braun Intel Design Technology
408 765-4279
dbraun@scdt.intel.com
or maybe:
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