Drive - A Memoir 79th Installment
weight
ratio’ must be about 80% in the front and 20% on the back!” I
snickered.
I
was right. We shut down, and the two of us lifted the rear wheels out
of their indentations in the ground. We figured the Whiz Gizzy
weighed about 1000 pounds, and if we boys could lift the back, it was
only about two hundred pounds. We also figured the 289 V–8 could
crank out about 250 horsepower. Therefore, the math showed one
horsepower per four pounds. We shoveled little trenches in front of
the wheels, retook our places and barreled out from under the tree
and into the yard.
“Wow
this is fun. When I goose the throttle the rear wheels spin out and
throw dirt far and wide.” Russ said and was ecstatic. We screamed
down to the end of the lane, spun around and roared back. At the
house end of the lane we have a circle to turn around. When we
powered in a beautiful drift around the loop, we slid into the
embankment the inboard wheel spun even faster and threw a rooster
tail of dirt in a huge arc. “See that? ‘did ya’, huh?” Russ
was screaming with joy. “Why did it do that?” he asked as he
skidded to a stop.
I
reasoned, “You have to think with your rear end, you know,
differential logic – if the left tire encounters resistance, the
differential causes the right tire to speed up. Therefore, when the
left tire stops completely; the right tire is turning a double the
speed. Let me try one!”
“Okay,
I’ll get out and watch.” Russ was jittering with excitement and
actually ran to where he was going to watch.
As
I fired up and engine and roar away I noticed Edith and Vernon
watching from the front step. I got the feel of the Whiz Gizzy as I
drove to the end of the lane. I raced back and powered into my slide
in second gear. When I hit the bank, I shifted into third gear and
slammed the accelerator to what was left of the floor. I noticed the
speedometer swing up to 100 mph, but I was only barely moving.
Slowly, the Whiz Gizzy moved forward, and as I looked over my
shoulder the dirt was flying over to the shop that was thirty feet
away. As the Whiz Gizzy caught more traction with both wheels, the
speedometer came down fast. I was still in high gear, so I stalled
the engine, noting next time to shift down. I turned off the key,
bounced out and ran over to where Russ was standing. His eyes were
wide and his mouth was open.
“I
could see light between the tire and rim, the wheel was spinning so
fast,” Russ exclaimed. We walked over to the track the wheel made
in the dirt. “Look the skid mark shows the slide and then this
narrow track that
500 more words tomorrow
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Comments