The posting from Bill Hayes about losing a wheel from
a B in tow reminds me of my all time LBC screwup. Back
in the late 70's I was cruising at about 40 mph a few
miles south of Oxford, Ohio in a 69 Sprite whose rear left wheel
had just been off for some sort of tinkering or another.
Like Bill I heard a loud noise, but mine was coupled with a rapid
decelleration and a severe steering problem. I looked into
my side mirror to see a shower of sparks shooting from the back
plate scraping the road and my tire bouncing down the road about
20 feet behind the car. My roommate, who was in the car with me,
just about s**t a brick, as did I. After we recovered from
our heart attacks we jacked up the car, bolted the wheel
back on and were on our way in a matter of minutes. There was
no damage to the car other than a slight flattening of the
bottom of the back plate. Sturdy little bugger that Sprite.
An act of stupidity like that puts Mr. Hughes' error into
perspective. My excuse is that at the time I was young and
stupid. The former has definitely changed, hopefully the
latter too.
Bob Grant
69 Sprite
Department of Biological Chemsitry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School
grant@vp4.med.harvard.edu
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