Everything She Knows, . . . She Learned from a Mini...
Posted by murmini Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:43:00 GMT
Alison, the owner of a lovely Pepper White Cooper called “Pepper” attends our 1st Sunday Monthly Motoring events and sent me this great story of her early experiences with a mini.
She describes herself as “MINIMUM – a mother, writer and muddler…and zoom-arouder in ‘Pepper’ . .” She divides her time between her toddler Josh…and… “Welll. There’s not much time left after that”, she says…
Alison’s story follows:
Back in the day, when I was learning to drive, I mastered the clutch/accelerator exchange in a Mall parking lot behind the wheel of a friend’s mini. Which one exactly? An Austin? A Morris? Well. I’m not sure. Actually, that’s understating it. I have no idea. See, it wasn’t mine. And I was 17. It was dark blue, though. And old.
(Hmmm… I can’t quite believe Murray is letting me get away with calling it ‘old’ and ‘dark blue’. I was expecting a Mini Inquisition, a lineup of likely suspects, regression therapy… But I digress.) What mattered was that it only took in one spot. One infintesimal moment after the accelerator and clutch had swooped past each other, like ships in the night. Not knowing where the other was until that split second. Looking like they never would, until suddenly, ‘hello! THERE you are.’ And it was tricky as hell to master.
We spent hours circling the lot, pulling away in first, changing to second, slowing down, starting over, stalling, dodging security guards. Seems to me that an empty mall parking lot is the perfect place to learn to drive. But they never seemed to see it that way.
Living in a city where a drive to the beach required several hill starts on a perilous gradient, meant several hours on the ramp practicing the handbrake release too. The cable so loose that I was was releasing the brake from an 85 degree angle while employing all the fancy footwork I could muster to find that elusive sweet spot.
Since then, I’ve never met a clutch I couldn’t conquer, and I’m happy to say, I’ve never rolled back into the car behind me either.
Thanks, mini, whichever one you were.
So, tell us, what was YOUR first. ? ? ?
Wish I could claim I ‘learned’ clutching in a MINI..but NOT..!!..Mom & Dad bought me an Opel Kadet..’65 I think..I would use this little car (with doors no wider than one inch thick!!!) for college. Only one problem..IT HAD A STICK..!!! Mom & Dad PATIENTLY tried to teach me all about this clutch ‘thingie’..BUT finally THEY ‘threw in the towel’..!!! I knew with school fast approaching in the Fall I had no choice but to learn how to drive THIS car..or WALK..!!! Thankfully we lived on a street with a fairly steep grade..so I would back out, let her roll down hill while I shifted ‘til I got to the bottom of the ‘hill’ ..turn around..and NOW comes the hard part..Now I know I’m REALLY on my OWN!!! Needless to say..after many starts, and stalls and jerks I finally mastered the fine art of shifting and proudly drove my way to college that Fall..!!!..Soooo what’s your FIRST story..??? :-}
Actually this is my wife’s story. Back in the day (June of 1969), my wife and I were married in Virginia. I was in the Navy, and my ship was in Oakland. We piled our few possessions into my Austin Mini 850 and headed West. She had never driven a manual (especially not one with a non-synchro first gear) and chose not to learn and practice on the two week cross-country trip.
Then the honeymoon was over, both literally and figuratively — the ship was leaving on a week long cruise, and I left her and the Mini on the pier. She had almost no idea how to find our appartment even if she could drive; the gas tank was essentially empty; we were broke. I gave her the paycheck that was waiting for me on the ship and directions to the base offices to get a dependent’s id card. And the ship pulled out.
A week later she was on the pier waiting when we came back into port — no, not still there; she actually came back for me! She and the Mini learned to get along with each other and had conquered Oakland’s hills.