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bakerman
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Mexico
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bakerman is male  bakerman has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
11-01-2021, 10:30 AM
21

Re: How Many Americans Does it Take to Start a Car?

You think that bad, you should try to repair any car with all of todays fancy ecological requirements. The more unnecessary gadgets a machine has, the more things can go wrong, which requires a highly paid specialist to fix it. And, things ALWAYS go wrong.

Give me a 1960's car any day. Unlock the door with a key, insert same key in ignition switch and turn it. Car starts.

If it was not for "Big Brother", I'd strip my car to the bare bones and I'd have a lot less stress in my life.

Gone are the days when life was so very, very simple.

My 1968 Mustang GT 350 fastback, which, unfortunately, I no long have.


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Fruitcake
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Somerset Riviera
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11-01-2021, 03:10 PM
22

Re: How Many Americans Does it Take to Start a Car?

Originally Posted by Dextrous63 ->
Wonder if a pre-test for budding astronauts is to see if they can get an oven to turn on automatically.

Has anyone ever managed it successfully?
I used to do it regularly when I was wooing my Lovely Cousin with roast duck and all the trimmings.

My mum gave me her old oven when she had a new kitchen. The oven had a simple clock with two hands each turned by a small knob on the front. Red hand, turn to time on, black hand, turn to time off.
Bung it all in the oven, turn on the cooker itself, drive 25 miles to visit Lovely Cousin, hang around with the other half of my family for a bit, drive 25 miles back to my house, bung in the Yorkshire pudding, wait until it was threatening to blow the oven door off, make the gravy, then serve meal for two.
How could she resist me?

The oven we have now tells the time and the temperature on an infuriatingly complicated digital display that looks like it came out of the International Space Station.
It has never been used as a timer as it's far too complicated for a former aerospace enginerd like me or my highly intelligent Cousin.


Speaking of Americans and cars, I was amazed the first time I saw a car with an automated seat belt. It's already plugged in but stowed in line with the rear-view mirror. When you get in and close the door, it slides across the top of the front windscreen on a track, then turns the corner, slides along the top of the side window before stopping by the door pillar.
It takes longer to do this than it takes to plug in a conventional inertia reel belt. All it saves is having to reach for it, pull it across, and plug it in by your hip.
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Surfermom
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11-01-2021, 03:30 PM
23

Re: How Many Americans Does it Take to Start a Car?

Excellent reads, Fruitcake. I am amazed by your accounts of your Austin and Renault. I have never heard of those features before. From your reading, it is a good thing you married in a time of easy appliance use, or there might not have been the dinners that resulted in decades of wedded bliss. Have you kept up meal preparation after all these years?

Bakerman, one of my first boyfriends drove a copper-colored Mustang, and I remember days of driving the coastal California highway with the windows down and the Eagles on the eight track. He would be surprised that I was a lot more interested in him - than the car!

Oh, grief, those silly automatic seatbelts. All this over-engineering and re-engineering of things that work perfectly well keeps some folks in jobs the same way car accidents keep attorneys loaded with cash...
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Fruitcake
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11-01-2021, 04:02 PM
24

Re: How Many Americans Does it Take to Start a Car?

Originally Posted by bakerman ->
You think that bad, you should try to repair any car with all of todays fancy ecological requirements. The more unnecessary gadgets a machine has, the more things can go wrong, which requires a highly paid specialist to fix it. And, things ALWAYS go wrong.

Give me a 1960's car any day. Unlock the door with a key, insert same key in ignition switch and turn it. Car starts.

If it was not for "Big Brother", I'd strip my car to the bare bones and I'd have a lot less stress in my life.

Gone are the days when life was so very, very simple.

My 1968 Mustang GT 350 fastback, which, unfortunately, I no long have.
I know exactly what you mean.

For old petrol cars it was just easy. You needed fuel, air, and sparks. It was easy enough to work out what was wrong and then rectify it.
Diesel you only needed two out of three.
Then came emissions controls. More and more power was absorbed or reduced to drive these things or strangle the airflow/exhaust, meaning more fuel was burnt to make the engine run cleaner.

Nice set of wheels. I had a friend in Ohio who was restoring a Corvette.

I've driven the later detuned 6 cylinder Mustang. I thought the Dodge Charger and Mitsubishi Gallant were better.
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Fruitcake
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Fruitcake is male  Fruitcake has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
11-01-2021, 04:17 PM
25

Re: How Many Americans Does it Take to Start a Car?

Originally Posted by Surfermom ->
Excellent reads, Fruitcake. I am amazed by your accounts of your Austin and Renault. I have never heard of those features before. From your reading, it is a good thing you married in a time of easy appliance use, or there might not have been the dinners that resulted in decades of wedded bliss. Have you kept up meal preparation after all these years?

Bakerman, one of my first boyfriends drove a copper-colored Mustang, and I remember days of driving the coastal California highway with the windows down and the Eagles on the eight track. He would be surprised that I was a lot more interested in him - than the car!

Oh, grief, those silly automatic seatbelts. All this over-engineering and re-engineering of things that work perfectly well keeps some folks in jobs the same way car accidents keep attorneys loaded with cash...
My mum had major surgery when I was fourteen, so it was a case of learning to cook, or starve, or cold food.
The cooker I learned to use as a teenager was the same one I used when I was a-courting my Lovely Cousin. Yes, I cook to take the load off my Lovely who is her dad/my uncle's carer, as well as cooking for fun which was one of the things I wanted to do when I retired.
I've been experimenting on my cousin since she was fifteen (before we got together I should add) and she is still my greatest critic and supporter.

You are right about those silly automated seat belts. They serve no real purpose other that to make money for someone.

Even standard inertia reel belts are unnecessarily over complicated compared with the old simple web straps and buckle types.
Because inertia reel belts unwind initially before they lock, it means the occupant moves forward instead of remaining in their seats. To counter this, the fixed part of the belt usually has a sprung or gas operated recoil device that pulls the other end of the belt to take up the slack when the reel part moves.
These things can be lethal if you set one off accidentally or try to dismantle one.

You can't beat a full harness, but the old strap and buckle type is a good second.
 
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