TheBanyanTree: Early Summer wonderings

[Roger Pye]

When I was in Germany at RAF Wildenrath in 1968-70 I drove an air force 
left-hand drive Cooper S Mini during the day and our own right-hand 
drive Ford Cortina when off-duty. It can be exciting and dangerous 
driving a RH drive car in a LH drive country but most of us got used to 
it pretty quick. However a friend of mine who after two years there had 
only driven RH drive cars decided to buy a German manufactured 
Mercedes-Benz. On his way into the married quarter part of the base the 
first time he drove it he forgot the drive was LH, overcompensated for a 
right hand bend and wrote it off around a power pole. One unhappy pixie, eh

roger!


NancyIee at aol.com wrote:
>  
> In a message dated 6/7/2010 10:25:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> pyewood at pcug.org.au writes:
> 
> We  discovered very rapidly that 
> a two-seater sports car does not fit two  adults and a growing child and 
> so I waved goodbye to fast cars and traded  the Sprite in on a secondhand 
> Wolseley 1500 four-seater sedan with walnut  fascia, leather seats and 
> other modcons. Sheer  luxury!
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the correction on the years of MGA. The one of which I spoke has 
>  little rust, the motor does not run but is not seized, and seems pretty  
> complete. I hope it will be running when I make my trip north, so I can . 
> .run  it.
> My first race car was a 60s Austin Mini, which I raced on ice for a number  
> of years. It was so agile I beat many other cars I should not have beaten,  
> except I was quicker in the corners. I could go it  flat out, foot on the  
> floor boards, the whole way, through skid and slide, while the bigger, more  
> powerful cars only flailed around and ended up in a snowdrift, or 
> up-side-down,  which ever they chose. I also had the advantage being the only woman 
> racing  there, in that I was lighter than all the men drivers. Little engine 
> did not  have to haul great body.
> I later raced a Saab Sonett, which was faster, but not as agile. Then I  
> gave up Winter to live in the south, and there is not much ice on the lakes 
> and  rivers here. The MGA will not race, but be my runaround beater and  
> guycatcher.
>