What a great story and very redolent of the Africa I knew so well.
It reminded me of an equally odd situation in the early 1960's that was
reported (with supporting pix) in The Autocar in the UK.
A Standard Vanguard had blown all its coolant hoses on a desert road in
Australia and a long way from habitation. Must have been a hire car 'cos I
can't think the average Ozzie of those times venturing out on long distance
trips without a goodly supply of spare parts, water and fuel. Anyway, after
a while, along comes a Mini. Neither car has a towrope, so it's agreed the
Mini will push the Vanguard as far as it can go. Off they set with clothing
and blankets acting as a buffer between Vanguard backend and Mini front.
Of course, the inevitable happens because there's insufficient airflow
through the Mini's front end - and it starts to boil. The party stopped on a
number of occasions to let things cool down, and the convoy slowly plodded
down the road. Then something else happened (can't remember what) and the
Mini could no longer push with it's front end. It was decided at that point
that if it couldn't go forwards, there was nothing to stop it going
backwards. That was okay for a while until the mini driver started to
complain that he was very uncomfortable looking over his shoulder to keep
the Mini in the middle of the Vanguard's rear. The final option they
adopted, was to open the Vanguard's boot lid, stuff the Mini's back end in
it and with both driver's at either end confidently 'looking forwards' - the
entourage eventually made it to habitation, repairs and no doubt a few tubes
of ice-cold.
It was a great story, the pix were excellent and it was a fairly typical Oz
solution to a peculiarly Oz situation. Great stuff!
Jonmac
=== This list supported in part by The Vintage Triumph Register
=== http://www.vtr.org
|