[TR] Car Myths

[terryrs at comcast.net]

Hello, everyone.B I have a stupid question.



Okay, ...a very...stupid question.



Therefore, I am the appropriate person to ask it....



When I think of car myths, I am reminded of one of my uncle, a grizzled
veteran diesel mechanic who was one of the co-owners and chief mechanic of the
logging company my family operated in Potter Valley, CA back in the early
fifties.B  Now, my uncles were not above stretching the truth when it was
convenient and when any of us "young'uns" were around to impress/buffalo.B  He
claimed, and it seemed actually serious enough, that long ago, in his first
car, a Model A, I think, he had a lower rod bearing problem.B  To get home, he
claimed he replaced the bearing with bacon rind.



Now, that's weird.



Uncle Ray is the same man, by the way, who told his wife, "Pearl, these last
fifty years have been wonderful, but you've known all along it's going to end
in your misery.B  See, Elizabeth Taylor is the most beautiful woman in the
world.B  And, because I am the most handsome man in the world, it is
inevitable that she will one day come to our door to take me away."B 



Who could say no, huh?



...After his best friend, my father, died, Uncle Ray was ailing with a heart
condition, and dealing with my father's death he was seized with dark
depression.B  So of course I wrote a letter to Elizabeth Taylor, explaining
the situation.B  Within weeks, a 9 x 12 manila envelope arrived at Ray's
house.B  In it was a beautiful picture of Elizabeth Taylor, and the
autograph:B  "To Ray, with love, Liz."



I've told no one where it came from.B  Ray was mystified until the day he
died.B  He put the picture in a frame on the table by his easy chair, so
everyone coming through the front door could see it, and know he had been
right all along.



I have no idea what Aunt Pearl thought about all that.B  Don't even want to
guess.



So, anyway, none of that is my question.B  My question is this:



In movies, when heroes are out of gas, they happen to have a bottle of whisky
in the car.B  Thinking on their feet, they pour the bottle into their gas tank
and--varoom--off they go!



To the engineers, tell me, could that be real????



Terry Smith, '59 TR3A

New Hampshire, where to be honest, gas is much cheaper than single malt scotch
(your experience may vary)