Carl's Japaese stuck horn story reminded me of a fond memory of the first car I
ever drove. "Betsy Lou" was a $75.00 1950 Hillman Minx. I was a teenage
passenger, my mother was driving. We had just stopped in front of my father's
office building, when the throttle cable broke. This particular model Hillman
was unusual, in that when the throttle cable breaks, the carburetor flips wide
open. Mom got it into neutral, and yelled at me to do something. I jumped
out, and tried to open the bonnet, which was of course controlled by the bonnet
latch on the driver's side. I ran to the drivers side, and yelled at my mother
to pull the latch. She couldn't hear me, as the engine was turning over at a
gazillion rpm, the rather "tired" muffler wasn't doing much muffling, and her
door was locked. I then ran around to the passenger side, thinking I could
just get back in, pull the latch, and then get under the bonnet and pull, push
or yank something to make it stop. Unfortunately t
he passenger side door handle had broken off years before, and I couldn't get
in that way. About this time Mom rolled down the window, and asked a passing
gentleman for help. He obligingly reached in and switched off the key. Doh!
After getting the cable fixed, that car never ran better. The cable broke
several more times before one of the valves got in the way of a piston and we
wrote it off. I got really good at driving it at full throttle, using the key.
It went something like this:
Start the car with the gearshift in low, engage the clutch quickly, accellerate
(not difficult at full throttle), turn off key, shift, accellerate, turn off
key, shift, etc. Eventually I good good enough at this procedure that I could
drive with one arm around the girl, steering and shifting with my left hand.
This worked to my advantage, as I had to turn off the key with my right hand,
which of course meant pulling the girl closer so I could reach the key.
Those were the days!
Terry McKitrick
1960 Alpine Series I
St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
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