I learned to drive in an early fifties Mercury with "free wheeling" overdrive
that you engaged by pulling a lever under the dash next to the steering
column. The lever was similar to the notched plunger on a caulking gun, and
you twisted it to disengage the notched rod and push it back into its sleve,
turning off the overdrive. The gears only worked under power, and when you
"coasted" there was no engine braking. It had a "three on the tree" and my
most embarrasing moment learning to drive was when I selected reverse instead
of first in front of my high school and backed into the car behind me at a
stoplight. My father (in the car) and about twelve thousand fellow students
(my guess) watched me do that. As a reward for not killing him, my father
later purchased for me a Hillman Husky Station Wagon (three door) with a
four-speed. The gears were ultra-low, low, medium low, and low cruise. I did
a lot of shifting in that car. It would hold three males or six females plus
driver. I learned about British electrics very quickly.
Equipe Rapide will have an autocross at Pennington Field this Sunday. Andy
and I will be there if any Dallas area roadsterites want to stop by. We broke
Tetanus in Houston a couple of weeks ago and Andy is rebuilding a killer motor
for it, so he and I will run my BMW, which I just put back together. If you
don't regularly replace timing belts on the M20 engine they break and bad
things happen to your valves and pistons. Fortunately BMW made about a
gazillion 325 cars so the replacement parts are available and relatively
cheap. We're taking the old motor home to keep wives comfortable and happy.
See you there!
Leisure Suit Terry
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