> Tim Mullin responded, saying:
>
> > Oh, yea... My kids hate it when I make "racy car sounds" while driving
> > my H**** Accord around... My wife just wonders why she married me...
Jeeez. When my two-year-old, Bronwen, was learning what noises things
make ("What does a cow say?" "Mooo!" etc.), one thing I insisted on was
"What does an M.G. say?" "Vrooom!" She got to find out first-hand last
Saturday.
> My wife wondered why she married me, whether or not I made engine noises.
> Now I only do it when alone in the car so my girlfriend won't wonder why
> my wife married me.
So have I told everyone already about the Waaay-Whoooa-Waaaaah game?
When we ride in the 122S, which has a roll center somewhere up near
Arcturus or the Pleiades, if there's no one on the roads with us, the
kids ask me to "go way-whoa-waah, Daddy." This consists of putting
a hand at 12:00 on the wheel, and moving it between about 10:00 and
2:00 while everyone in the car says "Waaaay, Whooooooa, Waaaaaah."
You see, the Volvo's soft suspension with lots of travel means that
there's almost a 1:1 ratio between hand angle on the wheel and
body roll. Of course, I do this at about 15 mph, and it takes some
three to five seconds to do the whole thing. The kids go wild.
So Saturday I went way-whoa-waah in the M.G. Remember that the M.G.
has a stiffer front anti-roll bar, solid Nylatron bushings, and 185-60
series A008RS tires on 14 x 5.5" centre-lock alloys. This car goes
way-whoa-waah the same distance in less than a second and with what
feels like no body roll whatsoever, just a slam from side to side.
The kids (one at a time, of course) were simply stunned. It's a
very different kind of game, like the first time your dad took you
out shooting with a Winchester instead of your Red Ryder BB gun.
Anyway, given the stories I've told about Kim, I guess Mendel was right.
Or as my dad's wife likes to say, "Birds of a feather don't fall too
far from the tree."
--Scott "Definitely one of the wrinkled peas" Fisher
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