Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari Digest, Vol 148, Issue 19

[Peter Rychel (dino308gt4]

Yikes. Although, in the heat of the moment like that, without realizing, he probably used herculean strength to shift and broke the lever, determined to beat that guy! It still would’ve taken herculean strength to shift with only the stub for the rest of the trip!! My hat’s off to your Dad...

 

Peter

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

 

---

From: Ferrari <ferrari-bounces+dino308gt4=hotmail.com [at] ferrarilist.com> on behalf of George <ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2018 4:30:35 AM
To: PeterGT4
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Ferrari Digest, Vol 148, Issue 19

 

A stop light drag race story for ya....

At the end of the 1952 academic year, my Dad was headed from Boston to California for a hot-shot MIT-engineering-grad-to-be kind of summer job.  Driving an old 40-something Ford with a "3 on the tree" transmission, he found himself driving through Indianapolis on the evening before the 500.  As you can imagine, Indy is nothing but stop-light drag races on the night before the 500, and sure enough, some local pulls up next to Dad and offers the challenge.  Dad, being a somewhat arrogant, WASP-y, New Englander MIT student, thought, "there's no way I'm going to let this local-yocal beat me to the next light!"  So the light turns green, and they both take off.  Dad's thinking, "I cannot miss this shift to second gear!"  So he goes to make the shift, and the lever breaks right off in his hand!  Needless to say, he lost the race, and drove the rest of the trip - to CA *AND BACK* - with nothing but the nub of a shift lever on the column.  😊

gp

---

From: Peter Rychel <dino308gt4 [at] hotmail.com>


Ahh yes, the drag races to stop lights. Never understood that...