On 06/11/2013 12:23 AM, Robert J. Hansen wrote: > On 6/10/2013 11:37 PM, Jean-David Beyer wrote: >> Of course he did not seriously propose the idea as a real course of >> action. But it is interesting to think about. > > I drive a Mustang GT with enough engine work to make it genuinely > dangerous to unprepared drivers. When I was taking a couple of advanced > driving classes (because I don't want to be a hazard on the road behind > such a vehicle), one of my instructors -- a police driving instructor -- > told me about a collision he recently saw with a tricked-out Mustang GT > like mine. >
I had been driving Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spiders for a while, and one Giulia (same car, 1600 cc engine). Then I bought a Lotus 26. I had driven my current Alfa to NYC (the nearest Lotus dealer to Buffalo NY where I was living). I had already bought and paid for the car, but it needed preparation so I could not take delivery until the next day. Nevertheless, the owner of the dealership took me to dinner at a fancy French Restaurant on his bill. He started by buying me a Martini. I drank it, but did not like it much. He then bought me another. I nursed it along, but finished it. He then ordered me a third. I told him I did not want it, that two were enough. He insisted. I took one sip to be polite, but I was not going to drink any more. He surprised me, though. He took the drink from my hand and smashed it to the floor. He then pointed out the old saw about martinis were like breasts on a woman: one is not enough, but three are too many. His point, as he explained, was that the Lotus 26 was not like the Alfa Romeos that I was accustomed to, and if I drove the Lotus the same way, I would kill myself. He then explained some of the fine points of a car that normally understeered but under the right circumstances, could oversteer, and that I better go to a large vacant parking lot and learn to handle that. Which I did. Luckily, in Buffalo at the time, there were blue laws that prohibited shopping malls from being open on Sundays so even if I spun out the car, other than a little excitement, I could not really hurt anything. The Lotus 26 was not like the 300 SL or the W-186 in switching from under to oversteer, but it could do it. It saved my life once or twice when driving on snow with glare ice (that I did not know was there) underneath it. But it takes nerve, when the front end is losing it to shift down a gear and floor it, when instinct and reflexes make you want to hit the brakes. But none of that will work on my Prius. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
