Back in the sixties, when I was living in London, I sometimes got a lift into Westminster with my flatmate,who would drive up Fulham Road at a terrifying rate of knots, and we'd arrive in Buckingham Gate about three minutes later, as he was indeed a speedy driver...
One part of the journey, at the end, has always intrigued me though... His office had an underground car park, and the idea was that he would drive down the ramp at roughly the same speed as he'd been doing on the way in, and hit the bottom with a screech of brakes.
And then, the car began to turn sideways all on its own! It took me some time to appreciate how all this was happening, as I'd be holding my face in my hands, and had both feet jammed in the front of the foot well!
It was one of these...
There was no effort involved, as the momentum of the car arriving on the plate at around 100mph was enough to twist it so that it was easy to drive off to the right without fiddling about with a three-point turn!
Nifty eh?
Er ... blank space?
ReplyDeleteSorry about that James, cock-up on the catering front...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it spins you the other way and into the wall if you hit it at the wrong angle. If you haven't heard from your flatmate since those days, then maybe he tried it.
ReplyDeleteI'd have had my eyes shut, AK...
ReplyDeleteI can easily remember him driving at around sixty mph around a corner somewhere near Clapham Common, at around 4.30am, when driving us back to London from a party in Rye which finished at 3.30am, and this was on a Monday morning, when I had to be in the office by 9.00am...
They say your whole life replays before you at times like that!
Never seen one, pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteIt did actually work, Thud!
ReplyDeleteYou could have one in your new underground car park for your fleet of rare cars!
Hope all is well with the new house! I bet the pool is getting a bashing this fine weather!
All good Scrobs, finally got full PP today so plans are afoot.Kids in the pool constantly so much to my surprise not a white elephant as I thought.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear about the PP, Thud! Always a good day, especially when restoring/improving a place!
ReplyDeleteDown here, they're trying to concrete over every bloody field, and knock down centuries-old farmhouses!
So we fight on...