Re: SPDs and falling off!

Tony Raven <junk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> sd / msg
<3rd5vmFis9smU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> dtd Sat, 15 Oct 2005 21:09:23 +0100:

>When I were a wee lad our family car was the original Bond. The front
>wheel would turn 360 so reverse was turn the wheel backwards and engage
>first gear! On (not so) steep hills we would all have to get out and
>walk up as it wouldn't make it with the weight of us all. Eventually my
>sister and I grew so that our knees were hitting (the rear seats were
>sideways) so it was traded in for a Fiat 500 which had more room!

I recall that in my formative years the family Mini van had a battery
which was long past its sell-by date. On any morning with
temperatures below balmy it required bump-starting, and sisters and I
would then pile into a slowly-moving van through the front passenger
door.

Years later I took the van (with the same battery) to Uni, and
routinely had to bump it in the car park (Tony, Bencraft Court, next
to the Crem on Bassett Green Road), which had a convenient slope for
the purpose. Push out of parking space, turn down hill, shove gently
to get rolling, hop in, wait for speed to build up, select first, drop
clutch, and the engine always caught first time. No problem, and
years of experience had left me thinking this was, if not perhaps
perfectly normal, at least not especially unusual.

One day I did this and Reiner Schmitz, the girlfriend-stealing runty
German with the V6 Capri automatic, laughed at me. As I turned round
he got in his car, turned the key and... Nothing. Can you bump an
automatic? No. Was I in too much of a hurry to stop and help? So it
was stated at the time, m'lud, but my memory is clouded now*. Net
result: exeunt Chapman stage right laughing and waving.

I have a picture of that old van here somewhere... Ah yes:
<url:http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/web/public.nsf/Documents/Harold_the_Barrel>.
I think that might also reveal something about my taste in music
(although I freely admit that the van has never, to my knowledge, been
to Bognor, let alone owned a restaurant there).

* Is it bollocks! I had loads of time :-)

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken
.

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