Good story! Back when my wife had a series of Honda 600s (the two-cylinder
chain-drive sedans), there was this informal club of owners that would meet
occasionally. A featured event of these get-togethers was the "thrasher
run", where the whole crew would play follow-the-leader "Italian Job"-style,
driving on the sidewalks and slaloming through the parking lots of vacant
industrial parks, zigzagging through construction cones, and on one
occasion, getting airborne where the road to the Alviso Marina went over the
dike. Despite a mere 36hp, the tiny beasts were light enough to get some
serious air. Landings, however, were a little rough, with 10-inch wheels and
all the suspension travel of an RC model. Fun cars, though -- like a
Spridget, you could be wide open in 3rd, doing all of 40mph, and feel like
you were racing flat out, but except for the noise, no one else paid any
attention (except for "Did you see that cute little car, honey?").
on 6/25/01 3:01 PM, Bud Krueger at bkrueger@ici.net wrote:
> It may be odd to respond to your own post, but I thought I'd share this
> NON-LBC
> event.
>
> A number of years ago I had a 1980 VW Rabbit Diesel. Great car, had a sunroof
> and a/c and gave about 38 mpg on low-priced (then) diesel. In the mid-80's VW
> ran a series of ads that stressed the pizzazz of their GTI. Remember them?
> Going airborne over bumps? Right!! One morning my oldest daughter told me
> that
> the Rabbit was parked across the street and seemed to be leaking oil. An
> understatement! The dipstick was dry. As I poured oil into it I could hear
> something hitting the pavement. The pan had a nasty hole in it!!!
> Eventually,
> the truth came out. There was this railroad crossing in town that looked like
> a
> perfect spot to play 'Kleine GTI!" Unfortunately, the diesel didn't have that
> kind of poop. It did go airborne, but it landed on the rise of the RR track
> dip
> and crunched the sump. Somehow it made it home (about a mile) without burning
> up.
>
> To tell the truth, I put a used sump on it and it covered another 50,000
> miles (180,000 total) before it rusted out. The daughter's still going
> strong,
> also.
>
> Bud Krueger
>
> nxhio xebeaio wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Bud -
>> When I was a kid my dad had a 74 Porsche 914 2.0.
>> One day we were driving out of the parking lot of a golf course (yes, you CAN
>> fit golf clubs in a 914, if just barely)
>> at sporting speed, and we heard a miserable scraping noise from under the car
>> before everything dragged to a halt.
>> We stood up and looked behind us, and saw several bits of metal, which turned
>> out to be the remains of the crossmember which supported the mid-engine and
>> tranny. We got out, and saw the engine/tranny sitting on the ground under
>> the
>> car.
>>
>> We had driven over an exposed pipe, about 2 in. in diameter, and about 3-4
>> inches high, and it had simply dropped the engine and tranny out of the car.
>>
>> Too bad it isn't that easy to remove engine and tranny on a B. ;-)
>>
>> FWIW, I don't think my B would clear a spare motorcycle wheel, much less a
>> real tire.
>>
>> glad it didn't do you any damage,
>> Rmartin
>> Tel Aviv.
>
--
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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