You may note that on the sidebar to your right (my left), there is a link to a mini-cooper page. Why? Well, back in the 70's our good friend, Ben Zimmerman,who was a little older than us (Vance can explain the whole link of Ben, Eve, and etc.) had a Mini. Like, an original Mini, not these pansy-assed things on the road these days (although the ones these days actually haul ass.)Vance would borrow it on occasion and we'd go tooling around (This photo is of me riding shotgun sometime in the winter of 76. Vance took the photo and, hence, is not driving, though the car is moving somewhere.... Hmmmm). It was great for throwing donuts in reverse (though not as good as throwing donuts in reverse in an Army Jeep in 4WD.)
In the spring of our Senior year, I had a cast on my leg from toe to crotch. In the Mini, I HAD to sit up front, but was only able to do so by wedging myself in there. Vance used to drive that car down Montgomery Blvd at 90mpg. The damn thing only weighed in at 200lbs, and when he'd hit a man-hole cover, or a pebble, we'd go airborne for a couple hundred yards. It was exhilarating and terrifying to me because I was basically trapped in that seat.
I think this was probably the first car in which we played Road Rallye.
Another great feature of this car was in going to the drive-in movies. You could roll up the windows and do bong hits, trapping all the smoke inside. Wicked cool.
Oh, and here is a picture from the time Vance rolled the damn thing trying to negotiate a turn in the men's room at the Drive-In Snack Bar.
"Ladies and Gennelmens. Can I have your attention please. The snack bar will be closing in ten minutes and after that it won't be open no more."
We had a lot of fun in the Cooper 'S'of Bens. Ben was the one who taught me how to do the 180 hand-brake u-turns at 35 mph on residential streets. We would also auto-cross in parking lot at events around Alb.. Ben won several trophies. I'm trying for the life of me to understand why he would EVEN let me take the car for hours at a time. And Rick, sorry about the bumps when your leg was in the cast. And hey, the thing at the snack bar, not my fault, I saw a quarter on the ground and was trying to reach it out the window while driving.
ReplyDeleteHell, that car rode so low to the ground, you could've picked up the quarter by squeezing your butt cheeks.
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