[Shotimes] Re: Park vs. Forward (was Autolock and MTX)

[Carl Prochilo]

Very good.  I have another one for you that's sort of the reverse (pardon
the pun) story.  And I do remember this story because I was in the car when
it happened.

In 1970 we were on a family trip in Italy.  At the time, the exchange rate
was very favorable to americans, so my Dad was able to rent a Fiat 130. 
(Now I want to know how many people even KNOW what that car is.)  This car
was the top of the line Fiat of it's day, and had a 3L V6 motor when most
cars in that country were running less than 2L four bangers.  The other
technology the car had that was relatively new was disc brakes.  Well,
tooling around the Italian countryside, and especially in Calabria where it
is very mountanous, my father found himself without the benefit of brakes. 
Fortunately he was eventually able to figure out how to slow the car using
the e-brake and the lower transmission gears.  He apparently boiled the
brake fluid, but prior to that he had never experienced this.  The car had
two adults, 2 kids, and a trunk full of heavy luggage.  Anyway, had he used
the transmission (low gears) to slow the car down, he would have been okay.
-- 
Cheers,
Carl Prochilo
1992 Ultra Red Crimson

Donald Mallinson said:
> Carl,
>
> The Turboglide was really not very well known, so few people
> would have probably been reluctant to use low gear because
> of the problems with that tranny.  Chances are your father
> was one that was told another bit of auto lore:
>
> Brakes are designed to slow down a car and motors to make it
> go, let each do their own job and the car will last longer!
>
> Of coures with drum brakes (and mechanical brakes before
> them) lower gears had to be used in cars as well as trucks.
>
> Funny how some habits happen though.  Here is another:
>
> I had a good friend that would never use the heater all the
> time in the winter.  He said the car would get better gas
> mileage if he kept the heater off.  Well, I knew better than
> that, even when I was 15 and 16 years old.  But a bit later,
> I found out WHY my friend probably felt that way.
>
> His father obviously grew up driving cars that had the very
> good, but fairly rare optional heater system that used
> gasoline in a heater inside the car!  So you had a FIRE
> inside the car in a little space heater before good hot
> water heaters were common.
>
> Thus turning off THAT type of heater DID save fuel,
> especially during the depression, my friends father probably
> wanted ever drop of fuel saved, and comfort was secondary,
> so he taught his son to do the same, even though hot water
> heaters have zero (or near zero, the fan pulls some juice
> and thus a tiny amount of drag via the generator/alternator
> on the motor) effect on fuel mileage.
>
> So as Paul Harvey would say: Now you know the rest of the story!
>
> Don Mallinson
>
>
> Carl Prochilo wrote:
>
>> You made me remember things from a long time ago.  I don't remember who I
>> asked, probably my father, why he never used the lower gears, I was told
>> that they were only to slow the car down going down hill.  I never really
>> gave that much thought until I owned my own car.  I know that my family
>> never owned a car with a Turboglide transmission, but now it certainly
>> seems
>> that a myth grew up around that issue that somehow got extrapolated to all
>> automatic transmissions of the 60s to the point that I'm sure none of my
>> family's older cars ever saw those gears get used.
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