"Bill Sohl" wrote:

Like I originally said....for my daily commute,
I'll take the truck. Give me a nice two lane
country road meandering about the hillsides
and I'll take the TR-3 (if it is a nice sunny
and dry day). Rain and the TR (or almost
any vintage British sports car) are natural
opposites. :-) :-)


The very best thing about European sports cars (including the British
ones) is that they're just agile enough to get you out of trouble when
you've done something stupid, like overestimated the car's, or your own,
abilities. Many years ago, I went though an intersection at about 85 mph
(the stupid part) in an MGB convertible. It was a narrow two lane road
crossing a four lane highway, the road didn't go straight through the
intersection (the road other side of the intersection was offset by about
twenty feet), and, very much to my surprise, the middle of the intersection
was considerably raised.

If I went straight though the intersection, I'd end up in a farmer's field
about twenty feet lower than the road's surface. If I overcompensated, I'd
hit the cars waiting on the other side. I had no doubts I could make the
slight twist in the road. What I didn't count on was the hump in the middle
of the intersection - hardly noticeable at normal speeds, but, at 80 mph,
enough to almost launch the car into the air.

As I went through the intersection, I hit that hump and felt the car shoot
into the air. I turned the steering wheel and the front tires simply
squealed. The farmer's field got a lot closer than I wanted. The car
dropped, the front wheels grabbed, and I was sliding sideways (straight
towards the cars on the other side). The car bounced into the air again. I
turned the steering wheel the opposite direction and the front tires
squealed again. The car came back down, the wheels gripped, and I slid
sideways into the lane I was supposed to be in. As the sliding stopped, I
was able to straighten out and continue on down the road.

During all that, as I shot past one of the cars waiting at the
intersection in the other lane, I got a quick glace of a smiling driver
clapping his hands. I, on the other hand, was not exactly a happy camper at
that particular moment (terror springs to mind). I never tried another stunt
like that. Any more playing around would be at a much safer location, under
much more predictable conditions. But I never got over my amazement of that
car's ability to handle the road.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/