James wrote
>
>Suddenly, an MGB 35 feet away decided to start itself. It scared the
>bejeezis out of me. I calmly put my tools away and ran like hell out
>of there. Went home early that night.
>
>Good reason to stop this dangerous practice of parking in gear. Use
>the parking brake to hold the car. if it doesn't work.... fix it.
Not suggesting that the following relates to anything but cars driven
round in circles really fast (races/sprints etc.), but we learn very
quickly NOT to pull the hand brake on when we come off the track. We get
to hear too many horror stories of what happens when you jam together a
couple of pieces of very hot metal for a while - sometimes it is called
WELDING.
Then again I have the opposite horror story of a guy who let me take his
F100 (Ford) truck when my car was parked-in and I had to do a quick run
down the road. I jumped in and put my foot on the clutch only to find
that he didn't have the hand/parkbrake on (it was 'hanging' on first
gear). Do you realise that these beasts can roll backwards VERY quickly
on even a slight incline? And do you know how much damage a truck like
this can do to a little Honda after rolling backwards for just three or
so feet?
How expensively embarrassing! Use your PARK BRAKE!
Eric
'68MGB MkII
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