The Hubbards wrote:
> My daughter usually drives our 88 Mercury Tracer wagon (the old family
> car) and I think she is a concientious and careful driver, but to my
> surprise she suddenly slammed it from fourth to third at 70km/hr and
> floored it; in no time we were accelerating hard past 110 and I had to
> tell her to slow down (the limit was 70). She was grinning like an
> idiot. This normally taciturn kid then spent about and hour on the phone
> to her friends telling them all about it. I hope I haven't made a
> mistake letting her drive it.
Brian, I enjoyed your "new" car -- and new driver -- story. While my boys
are at the minimum 13 years from driving age, I've thought a bit about what
the future holds for my car. Assuming there is still fossil fuel in the year
201x, I'm hoping to see the same enthusiasm that your daughter has shown.
OTOH, I'm a bit conflicted. No airbag, temptation to push the car a bit, and
it is a "sports car" after all. But I don't think it'll be a problem,
because the boys will have washed, waxed and worked on the car for years,
and I hope to ensure they have the same emotional investment in the TR4 that
many amateur Triumph restorers on this list have in their "babies." And
statistics suggest that the more teenagers in a car, the more likely they'll
have an accident (distraction, showing off, etc.). So maybe your 2 seater*
is safer than the wagon? (um, arguably <g>)
*I might someday install a rollbar to reduce the girl-capacity of the car
(with bench seat), though.
--
Steven Newell
Denver, CO
'62 TR4 CT5018LO -- http://www.cravetechnology.com/tr4.html
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