Max wrote
> I almost think that the invention of air bags has
> made drivers more aggressive, and >take more risks.
> If everyone was driving LBCs we wouldn't be seeing this
> car-as-weapon, get-out-of-my-way-or-else style of driving.
Just in the last two weeks I've had the opportunity to completely alter
the attitudes of three drivers...thanks to a simple ride in my BGT.
At the end of the exit ramp at 70 they were already freaking out!
They all said they had a whole new respect for the speed
they drive.
Big vehicles isolate you from the road. Most people have no
conception of the speed and the effects that could result.
I was just watching a crash test study of SUV's on the boob tube.
At 50 mph into a wall, none were driveable, all were devastatingly
totaled. Two would have killed the drivers.
I've hit the Jersey wall 'backwards' at 50 (spun out by a tracker trailer)
(www.teglerizer.com/mgstuff/yb_description.htm bottom of the page)
and I still drove the car to a work for a week before I realized
the tire was rubbing the wheel well on hard turns or bumps.
So what's better.... $15K in damage to the vehicle with supposed
crumple zones.... or solid little cars with lots of hard metal and
awareness of the road at speed?
I'll take my LBC any day.
Paul Tegler ptegler@gouldfo.com www.teglerizer.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Max Heim" <mvheim@studiolimage.com>
To: "MG List" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 11:56 PM
Subject: This week's trials & tribulations
I may have to stop driving on Fridays... bad luck, apparently. Late last
Friday night on the freeway in a rainstorm the B's wipers quit. Fortunately
it was raining hard enough to keep a smooth sheet of water flowing over the
glass as long as I was moving fast. Almost no traffic at that hour, so I
just kept going. Upon disassembly the next day it seemed that the rust
buildup inside the motor casing was the problem -- at least that's the only
thing that I really did anything to, but they worked after that.
Then this last Friday on 580 at rush hour the right rear tire suddenly
deflated. I think I can thank the tube for avoiding a blowout, it was more
like a very quick deflation. It turned out there was a 16d double-headed
nail (I know there's a name for those things -- what is it?) through the
tread, with just part of the head protruding. Nice sort of thing to scatter
on the freeway, I thought. Anyway, a quick bout with the KO hammer, and I
was back on the road on the skinny-but-well-inflated spare. The scary part
was trying to merge with traffic on an uphill curve with a solid line of
cars doing 70+ in the right lane, completely oblivious to my signal. One
large SUV accelerated to cut me off, then the lady in the Corolla behind it
glued herself to its bumper while just looking at me blankly, as if it was
completely normal for someone to be driving parallel to her on the shoulder,
matching speeds, and screaming their head off. B***** idiots...
PS: I was watching the end of the Daytona 500, and I saw the crash, but I
had no idea it was serious. Then a friend called to tell me he had seen on
the news that Dale Earnhardt had been killed. I was shocked. It makes you
think... even professionals, with all the safety equipment, can get killed.
Yet people drive every day as if they were invulnerable... in fact, you are
far more likely to be killed on public roads than while racing. I almost
think that the invention of air bags has made drivers more aggressive, and
take more risks. If everyone was driving LBCs we wouldn't be seeing this
car-as-weapon, get-out-of-my-way-or-else style of driving.
(off soapbox)
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the red one with the silver bootlid.
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