Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 08:42:07 -0700
Reply-To: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Not sure what this is, but it's pretty
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Jere Hawn wrote:
With all the other VW's around in the pic I would say
it is a kit car.
Jere
Jeff writes:
I once worked with an overpaid and underworked
windbag, Bill, who went on ad nauseum about the
'sports car' he was building in his garage. "From
scratch," Bill said, and enigmatically refused to
reveal just exactly what he meant by that, or what
kind of car it might be. A few of the rest of us were
currently working on a variety of MG's, Spitfires, and
a '67 Austin Mini in our own garages, so our
curiosities were indeed piqued. Especially when it was
pointed out that Bill often had difficulty operating
the electric pencil sharpener ...
We waited, and a year or so later, the day finally
arrived--Bill had brought his sports car to work. We
hurried out to the parking lot to find what we would
later learn was a Bradley GT: a fiberglass body shell
which appeared to be the illegitimate offspring of a
carnal union between a late-70's Corvette and a 1969
Opel GT. The gull-wing doors (which often stuck and
required a hearty blow from Bill's ham-fist) were
half-heartedly deployed by means of a pair of limp gas
struts, similar to those found on the hatchback of my
'81 Toyota Tercel.
But the real excitement came when the oversized Bill
stuffed himself into the undersized bucket seat and
brought the magnificent machine to life. Our ears were
greeted by the familiar squeeky-exhaust sound of a
flat-four Beetle engine beneath the sleek plastic body
shell, which now trembled and shook like a Westy
ice-cube tray perched atop a Harley-Davidson cylinder
head (requisite Vanagon content).
"I still have to hookup the stereo," Bill shouted over
the sounds of the revving engine and the buzzing body
shell.
"See how shiny HIS wire wheels are?" said Bill's wife
to my friend Fred, whose MGB's wheels were long
overdue for a good polishing.
"Yeah, but mine are REAL ..." Fred replied, stooping
down and prying the plastic hubcap from Bill's
vigorously vibrating car. He tossed the wheel-cover to
me like a Frisbee, and I quickly popped it back onto
the wheel as Bill hastily closed the hatch and
prepared to depart, before any more parts detached
themselves from his beloved fiberglass faux-Ferrari.
"Waste of a good Beetle ..." Fred muttered as we
watched Bill drive off into the sunset, backfiring on
the shift. And I hope that's the last I ever see of
the Bradley GT.
"OK, I'll leave it at that since I've already gone on
for far too long about something I don't know a whole
lot about ..."
Jeffrey Earl
1983 diesel Westfalia "Vanasazi"
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