Pat,
> Some taxi cab drivers are terrific. Ah, I remember getting a taxi cab ride in
> NYC that was outstanding! The guy was a master of traffic, corners, on his
> toes. I was home from college, and my dad greatly resembled the NYC Police
> Commissioner (no, he wasn't, tho), so it looked like the cabbie knew we'd
> appreciate the trip. Guess he figured that's what the Commish wanted. :-) And
> he delivered. The only one who didn't appreciate it was my mom. :-)
Heh, that brings up a funny story. While on honeymoon in Rome, we had
to take a limo across town, and what shows up but some slightly
stretched Mercedes gasoline 5-speed (older with 4 round headlights).
Didn't think too much of it until we took off by whipping a cop-style
180º u-turn right in front of the Vatican <G>. Within 3 turns we had
all made up our minds about this driver, and needless to say, mine was
the polar opposite of my ashen silent bride. I didn't get a chance to
ask him, but could swear that he had formal high speed training. Late
braking, late apex, smooth as glass and driving within 20" of the cars
around him. The real highlight was when he had to stand on the brakes
really hard to not hit a motorcyclist trying to sneak across an
intersection. Never even made the tires squeak. I captured all but the
first 30 seconds on video. Kind of a tame version of that Paris video
that made the rounds a few months ago. My bride still says that she
will never go back to Italy because of it <VBG>.
I wonder if they autocross anywhere in Italy. It looks like they just
do it in the streets and have no need for formal competition below F1.
Later dates.
--
Scott Knight mailto:scott@scottknight.com
http://www.scottknight.com/ IRC:SS396man
'95 Black Impala SS
'94 Ducati 900SS CR
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