Another don't think the worst.

[Simon TR4a]

Last summer coming home from a visit to Mosport I ran out of gas, pulled over to the shoulder of the road at th top of a hill.

Luckily my wife was with me in the other car so reversed back to me, and we drove to the gas station, filled a small gas can and went back to refill the TR4.

It still wouldn't start, even with the choke. Checked the plugs, wires, distributor cap, no visible problems. Finally crawled under the car to see if some dirt or rust from the bottom of the tank had blocked the fuel filter, and realised the shoulder of the road sloped to the right, and the fuel I had poured in had all settled on the side away from the outlet pipe.
Pushed the car forward and closer to the road, watching out for cars copming over the hill, and away we go (Triumphantly!)

(Incidentally, my car when running at Mosport at racing speed used approx 1 litre per 2.5 mile lap; about 12mpg imperial, less than 10mpg American!)
Simon.

 

[screenprinter]

A little story along those same lines -

In the days of my youth my Dad's parents lived in Rushford, New York - Grampa Marsh loved Model T's and had a number of them that he played and tinkered with - So naturally it was a big deal when he'd take the grandchildren to Cuba lake ( About 40 miles away) on a Sunday to feed the Catfish. It was also usually an all day ride because something generally broke on the way out or back. The route he took was through hill country, all ups and downs, and if any of you guys remember the Model T had a gravity feed fuel delivery system - no fuel pump - ( or maybe it had one but Gramps's didn't work ) so if you were low on fuel and headed up a hill the engine would starve and die - Gramps solved this problem by silver soldering a bicycle tire valve stem into the gas cap and when we'd come to a hill he'd hook up an old bicycle pump to the stem, give it a few strokes and Presto - Pressurized fuel system and on we went to Cuba Lake Pavillion.

I guess neccessity IS the Mother of Invention!

Bob M.