I had one embarassing moment and one near embarrasment lately.
The first was when I was leaving Wings and Wheels. A couple of people were
talking to me about the MGA's when I was leaving (there was a 1500, Mk1,
and Mk2 parked next to each other and they were discussing the differences.
Anyway, I couldn't get my car into 1st gear. I tried four or five time,
each time getting more frustrated. Even the old standby of shifting into
second then first didn't work. I tried letting the clutch out and letting
the gears grind together. Still nothing. Finally, I tried other gears to
see if they worked. It was then that I realized that I had pushed the
lever past the 1st-2nd gate and was trying to shift into a non-existent
gear in front of reverse. I was one humble guy as I drove off.
The second event happened at a gas station with a drive-thru pay booth.
The A died while the attendant was processing my credit card- no cough or
sputter, just immediate loss of fire. My first thought was that the Prince
of Darkness had finally caught up with me for taunting him all of these
years. I pulled the starter and the car turned over but no fire. I looked
at the gauges. The fuel gauge said empty- just like the key was off. I
looked at the key. It seems that my "MGA key fob flip" had preloaded the
key enough to make it turn enough by itself to cut power. Turn the key
back on and I'm out of here! I doubt if the attendant even knew anything
was had happened.
I have been driving the A all week this week. The weather has been cold
(in the 40's F every morning) but dry. I have the top up :-( for
convenience and I am getting pretty sick of hearing the Facet pump running
all the time. It would almost be worth installing a radio to drown out the
noise but then, what music would I play? :-)
Finally, to all of those new to the list who see me take a pot shot at
Tri**phs on occasion, I should say that I don't really hate the cars. I
just do it to irritate Bob Allen. Proper ettiquette on this list requires
that you choose one of the more prolific posters and irritate that person
at every opportunity. Bob picks on MGA's (I believe that he has MGA envy
and compensates by driving six cylinder cars) and I reciprocate by taking
the occasional pot shot at that cross between a tractor and a pickup he
calls a sports car ;-)
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
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