Page 27 - Jan2023

There was another lever, on the left side of the Traffic was very light that day. Good. Easing out
seat where expected, so I manipulated that. Much onto the roadway it turned out that the first gear
Holiday Traditions that Began with
to my surprise, it did not adjust the back, but was intended only for stump pulling - it hit the rev
instead, each pull of the lever inched the entire limiter at about 2 mph. Second was for house
seat incrementally forward. Interesting. moving, and allowed for speeds as high as 4. Third
gear was apparently meant for sod-busting on a
There was another control on the right side of
virgin
Britons prairie, but it was just possible to attain a
the seat, so I tried that. It was a knob, which at first
full 6 mph at redline. (Sorry, 10 kph) Shifting into
I thought was broken somehow .Eventually I found
fourth, the revs dropped to about a hundred as
that a vise-like grip, and about 300 foot-pounds of
the car stumbled and strained, but with my foot to
torque, could rotate the knob, and adjust the seat
the floor, it casually accelerated up to secondary
back to a suitable angle. Whew.
road speeds.
That accomplished, I reached out to tweak the
With patience, it might possibly work as a
rear view mirror. It was convex, and the enormous
usable cruising gear. Fifth, however, was
field of view included all of Vichy France from
apparently intended for the Mulsanne straight,
Bordeaux to Marseille. Could be useful for spotting
while sixth could only be intended for record
any mountains that might be overtaking you, but
attempts on the salt flats. The movement of the
since nearby cars showed up as tiny specks, I was
tachometer needle in this gear was approximately
a bit uneasy about it. Better rely on the inside
the same as that of a sundial.
mirror.
Hmmm... it seemed like six gears would be
It seemed like a standard mirror, but it did have
plenty , but there was something off with the
one special feature-- it was unlikely to fall off. It
power to weight ratio on this vehicle. Perhaps
was securely mounted to the windshield, not with
some gears fitted in the middle there would have
a dime-sized spot of glue, but a bracket the size,
helped, sorta like in an 18-wheeler, or maybe in
shape, and color of my confirmation Bible (which
one of those old-time ore trucks they used in the
also blocked about a third of the windshield.) Oh
big copper mines. But we all have to work with
well...at least I could see behind me.
what we have, so clearly, fourth gear it is, and hold
I reached for the seatbelt, and snapped it in your speed through the roundabouts. Steady as
place. Great, except the shoulder strap cut into my she goes!
collarbone like a wire. Within seconds my temples
were throbbing and my left arm was going numb.
(Can a seatbelt cause a heart attack?) This would
not do.
A view of a
Squirming, I managed to get the shoulder belt
rangée d'arbres
over my head and to lay flat behind my back. What
( a row of trees-
a relief. And still fairly safe (I hoped.) these happened
Reaching now for the shift lever, I found that it to be plane
trees) from the
was almost under the dashboard, about two feet
driver's seat of
away. It was also about two feet long, and there
my micro-car.
was about a two foot distance between 1st and
(You might be surprised at what some of them are.)
6th gears. Shifting into neutral, the clutch pedal
had about two feet of travel. Coincidence? Hard
to say. Oh well, again. Time to start the engine
and release the hand brake....ahh.... driving in
France at last.
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