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Best way to deal with auto problems: Drive hard...

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Luke_Healey

Luke_Healey

Jedi Trainee
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Warning, somewhat uneventful driving story and photos to follow...

As some of you know from the other recent posts, my red Sprite has been running pretty rough, and was getting rougher by the minute. However, there were shining moments on Friday night. I was out for a ride with my wife and Tullamore in his 69 Sprite north of our city. There are a few 25mph curves as you head out of town. He's set up with the 3/4" sway bar and low profile tires. I'm running the 145/80/13 Sears Roadhandler tires that came with the car. I imagine they are vintage 1988. He took off ahead of me and made the curves look easy, so I decided to push my Sprite since it was running best at 4500+ RPM.

With my wife and I in the car I finally got to find the limit of those tiny tires' capablities. At 55mph around this 25mph curve, I managed to break all four tires free slightly. It was quite exciting since the car behaves similarly to a go kart. I had just topped up my shocks earlier in the day, so the handling was excellent.

Once we got well north of town we pulled off and I took a couple of photos since I was trying to finish off a roll of film from the 4th of July.

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Even though she won't admit it, I'm pretty sure my wife had a good time... She was taking her own photos of the car with a digital camera.

818715001_7957490a7d.jpg
 
Bad you guys bad, 55 in a 25. LOL

Beep beep Bugeye comming through.
 
Quite LOVELY!

...so are the cars. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

and: what's "film"?!?! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Ha, the film is what I use in these old cameras /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif I figure I better use it before they quit making it. I can always use my digital camera later!

Well I think the speed limit is 55, but the little yellow sign mentions that it'd be wise to take the turn at 25mph.

I imagine the people that live out that way deal with all sorts of people testing their cars and motorcycles since it's very flat in this part (and most parts) of Iowa and the roads are laid out on a grid normally. If you like to drive in straight lines, it can be quite enjoyable. But the Sprites long for a different sort of layout.
 
Black & white photos evoke memories of the days when these cars were brand new! Nice pics...let's see more of the wife's (pics of the cars that is).
 
This is what she managed to harvest. She's not much into photography and wasn't as equipped to take photos as the sun was going down as I was. However, I ended up underdeveloping my film because I shot it at 400iso and it's 200iso film. I made an educated guess when pushing it, but did underdevelop it about 1/2 stop.

Hers were taken with an old Sony camera we have.

A shot or Tullamore deciding that it was time to quit following us and start leading the way since we were nearing the curves:

814605003_ad8d6c7a2a.jpg


And a similar shot once we got past the curves and pulled over to discuss why my car was starting to sound like a shot up WWI airplane:

814605023_09e335ce28.jpg
 
Great stuff! Even without the full push you have some nice tone in the B&W! Ilford?

...don't you dare tell me it's "Easkod." I won't believe ya. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
No, this film happens to be Fomapan 200 from the Czech Republic. It's only 20 bucks for 100 foot rolls of it and I like the way it looks. Tri-X 400 is my favorite all around b&w film followed by Ilford HP5+. But I shoot a lot of this Fomapan stuff. I developed this roll in Kodak Xtol which gives sort of a glow to the whites and totally blackens the shadows.
 
Those cars are twins! Would never have known that in black & white.
 
Well one has wires and the other steel wheels. But then you need to tell em apart when leaving the pub.
 
"three windshield wipers"? But I thought they were two seaters?
 
Great photos and a good story. The only thing that I would add is about the time all four wheels broke loose in at 55 mph in the 25 mph curve, a loud "thump" sound would have occurred.

That sound, of course, would be the sound of my wife's hand smacking the side of my head! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif

Nice Sprites, pretty wife. You're a lucky man, my friend!
 
My wife doesn't really complain about my Sprite driving. I think she just doesn't know what to expect in it compared to when we're riding around in our daily drivers.

She drove the Sprite last week when it was missing badly and told me she didn't know that it was supposed to run better than that, and had no comparison of what it should feel like when running properly.
 
Re: Best way to deal with auto problems: Drive har

jlaird said:
"three windshield wipers"? But I thought they were two seaters?
Click to expand...

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

I need three because I go so fast I have three times the amount of bugs on my windshield! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/driving.gif

Anyone else notice that in the picture of me passing Luke I was right next to a No Passing Zone sign, perfect...
 
Re: Best way to deal with auto problems: Drive har

Tullamore said:
Anyone else notice that in the picture of me passing Luke I was right next to a No Passing Zone sign, perfect...
Click to expand...

In some circles they'd call that: "evidence." /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
The BUGS in the teeth are sure fire testimonial
of beath taking fun..cool story and nice pics!!!
 
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