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Date:         Thu, 11 Apr 1996 17:51:41 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joachim Beek <beekj@tsdhp.jsc.nasa.gov>
Subject:      Not-so-early Friday (FFF)

Well, all right, since Unca Joel brought up Friday first, since many of you probably won't read this until tomorrow anyway, and since the object of this story has more than just a passing resemblance to early VWs (at least in function and, if squinting, in form too), I'll post this today.

Some years ago I saw this in a newsgroup; copied and posted without permission, blah, blah, blah. Here goes...

--- As we were talking about 2CVs, I thought I'd post in a letter to the editor of "Classic and Sportscar", the English mag. Excerpt posted without permission.

[This guy owned a 1956 2CV, he talks about the mechanicals and then...] "The memory that really keeps me awake at night is that of having it fully wound up downhill with a following wind, when I encountered a large bump. The suspension flatly refused to live up to its name, and the wheels disappeared upwards. The chassis hit the ground, and flexed: whereupon both doors flew open and broke their check straps, mine falling off into the road. The roof became detached and flew backwards like a flag, tearing out the rear window. The backs of both seats, already weak, broke completely. I had the steering wheel to hang on to, but the last I saw of my passenger was his feet somewhere near the windscreen. When we disentangled ourselves, I was approached by the driver of the car behind me, carrying my concave door: with tears in his eyes, he apologised for running over it, but he had been unable to avoid it as he had been laughing so hard." ---

And so it goes. Brings tears to my eyes every time I read it, so apologies for any typos. Anybody who has ever had the fortune to drive in a deux-chevaux (2CV to you anglophones) will have no trouble visualising the picture painted by this guy...

Joachim -- I'm not an engineer, but I play one at work.


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