[Spridgets] Unintended acceleration
David Booker
tncarnut1 at yahoo.com
Sat Jan 2 08:35:49 MST 2010
OK - Here's my unintended accelleration tale...
Back in high school and college I drove a 289-powered '67 Mustang that had a
bad habit of popping the non-compression motor mount from time to time. (I'm
sure this had nothing to do with my fondness for making the front wheels leave
the ground on a second hop or how fun it was to get sideways in second) The
most memorable of the motor mount incidents happened once when I was
attempting to merge into fast-approaching traffic from a side-street.
The left motor mount let loose a few feet into the manouver, which put a
stretch on the throttle linkage. This increased the angle on that side of the
engine, which further stretched the linkage... You get the picture. The car
performed a relatively dramatic sideways entrance to traffic complete with
lots of tire smoke and noise. It was a few seconds before I could gather my
senses and stomp the clutch pedal. Luckily, I killed the ignition before it
blew itself up or put a big dent in the hood from the carb/air cleaner. It
was a mystery what had happened at first and I was more than a little shook
up. Figured it out later that day and bolted in a chain around the new motor
mount so it could not pull a repeat performance.
P.S. - Dave - I've never driven a Mehari, but I've seen a couple. I think
they are street legal as an antique. (King Midgets are, so these must be - I
know they did get officially sold here for at least a while) Not sure I'd want
to drive one in New York traffic, though.
David Booker
'71 Midget
Long Island
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