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Emergency Kit
Ever come across a car accident? Ever been in one? What about a serious one? I had an experience where a car following behind me shot across the middle of the road, hitting another car head on that was travelling in the opposite direction. Thankfully, the accident occurred in a 50 km/h zone, and no one was killed. I stopped, along with one or two others, to see what we could do. Both cars were write offs, and both drivers suffered severe shock. The driver that veered across the road had hit his head during the accident and had a head wound. At the time, there appeared no danger of fire, so we tried to calm both drivers down while waiting for the emergency services to arrive on the scene. Switching back and forth from groaning in pain and wanting to jump out of the car and split the scene, the driver in the wrong had possibly been driving under the influence of some drug. The lady in the other car was very shocked but unhurt.
In the last couple of weeks, a friend of ours was driving down a main road, again in a 50 km/h zone, and a young boy ran straight out in front of the car. Even the driver travelling behind our friend, who witnessed the accident, said there was very little our friend could do. Sadly the boy died soon after the impact.
Has anyone had an experience where your car just stopped and wouldn’t start? It’s bad enough having this happen in the middle of the daytime in busy city streets, but it really stinks when this happens on a cold wet night along ways from anywhere!
So what things can we carry in our cars that will help us in an emergency situation? It is, definitely a good idea to carry some water and food with you if you are heading out of town. It isn’t too difficult to keep a couple of litres of water in the boot of the car that you can drink or use for topping up a leaking radiator.
Having a blanket or two in the back of the car isn’t a silly idea, either. Carry some warm clothing with you – like a jacket and hat.
Some of the late model cars come with an emergency kit already provided, inside the boot or cabin. This might consist of a night reflective sign indicating to oncoming drivers to slow down, a high-viz vest and a heat preserving blanket.
Nowadays having a cellphone with you is a great addition to any travel plans. If you travel through areas that are somewhat unpopulated, having a cellphone with you is even more essential. Consider picking up a car cellphone charger, too. Cell phone signals travel on a line of sight from towers, so if you’re in hilly areas or valleys you’re likely to strike terrible reception. If bad reception occurs, try getting yourself to higher ground, as this often helps.
Go to any major shopping centre, and you’re sure to find a place selling a first aid kit. These have things like bandages, ointment, scissors, tape, plasters, and surgical gloves. You really should have one of these in your car. Many of the first aid kits can slide under the front seats so that little room is taken up.
Don’t forget to take any medication that you or your passengers may need for a long journey. A torch is a must. And, have you thought of doing a first aid course or updating your old one?
Here’s to your safe travels.
The Loss of My Virginity
She was sleek and curvaceous and there was almost a glow about her. She crouched under the spotlight looking as if ready to pounce on an unsuspecting admirer like me. Her skin was smooth and flawless. I walked around her admiring the curve of her flanks and the rounded rear. It was love at first sight for me and I could hardly wait to know her intimately. My first Ferrari experience was about to begin. Most of us will go a lifetime without ever driving a truly high-performance car, let alone a supercar like a Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini. I was one of those fortunate ones who, without making the huge investment, got to enjoy a number of drives in a truly great car.
I was the new sales manager for an old Ford dealership. The owner was a high-performance car enthusiast and we were one of the few dealerships that inventoried and sold the limited production vehicles produced by Ford Racing Division. One of our high-performance salesmen was a former racing driver, Paul O’Shea, who had been with both the Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz teams in the nineteen-fifties. Paul had located and bought with the boss’ money, a retired Ferrari Gran Prix car that had once won the Carrera Pan-America, the Gran Prix of Argentina.
The Ferrari red body was crafted of aluminum, light and easily dented. It was right-hand drive with a headrest that sloped back into the rear deck. Next to the base of the headrest buttress was the huge, spring-loaded cover for the sixty gallon gas tank. Originally equipped with a Ferrari V-12 of about four litres, the car had been bought for a pittance with a rod through the aluminum block. Not being a purist, though he did own two other Ferraris, the Ford dealer had the shop install a Ford seven litre racing engine with a highrise manifold and two, huge four-barrel carburetors. Blueprinted, the Ford engine produced 575 horsepower in a vehicle that weighted about 1,900 pounds with sixty gallons of gas aboard. It was awesome!
The clutch was very heavily sprung and hard to depress at first, but once underway it was fast and had a very positive grip. The shop had rigged an Austin-Healey windshield in place of the tiny windscreen that had sufficed for racing. The red beast looked street legal, but lacked windshield wipers a horn and a few other unmentionables that would have passed a motor vehicle inspection. It was important not to attract the attention of the traffic policemen while operating on the public roadways.
I drove the red beauty every chance I got, the excuse being that I was promoting our High-Performance Division. I drove it to the gym, picked up my girlfriend for lunch and cruised the local drag-racing strip parking lots.
My romance ended when my promotional drives produced results; the sale of twelve racing Fords and one former Ferrari race car.
How Reliable Will My New Car Be?
We have written about car reliability surveys on our web site here.
We, and many others, are really annoyed that no such survey happens in Australia. So we are all still in the dark as far as Australian-made cars are concerned! No local insurance company or auto magazine seems to want to produce their own survey, and the local car companies refuse to make industry quality surveys public. Yet these very same companies benefit from millions of dollars showered upon them by the Australian Government – that’s our tax dollars – so don’t you think they have an obligation to divulge how well they make their cars with our money, and that we have a right to know before we buy? We’d like to know how you feel, so click below to write your views
Bumper Stickers
Some car enthusiasts hate bumper stickers – they spoil the clean lines and detract from the overall design of their machines, and if you change your mind about the sticker and you put it on the paintwork (bad, bad move), the paintwork can get damaged. The only stickers you’re ever going to see on machines owned by these people are the little tags that all cars have to have to tell those passing by and inspecting them that the car is road legal and all the paperwork has been done and paid for. Plus a few little stickers in obscure parts of the window about the security system installed.
For other people, however, car bumpers and car rear windows are a blank canvas to express creativity and personality – and a sense of humour. In extreme cases, you won’t just find bumper stickers but also things that attach by suction cups onto the rear windows and possibly fuzzy dice or rosaries hanging from the rear view mirror. At the least creative end of the spectrum, you have those “Baby on Board” stickers or suction-cup thingies, warning anyone driving by that there is an occupied child seat in the back. These things were originally marketed as being a safety item, with the idea that if people saw them, they’d slow down and be more considerate. This isn’t the case, especially as you can now get rip-off versions of these than inform the world that you have a certain breed of dog on board – which is likely to be obvious if the windows are down and your Irish Terrier, German Shepherd or whatever is putting its head out the window to catch the breeze (impressive in a long-eared, long-haired breed like the Afghan Hound). At the other end of the spectrum, you get stickers with pictures and slogans. Few cars in Australia come close to the sticker-mania of taxi drivers in Peru back in the early 1990s (yes, this writer was there then and rode in them). It wasn’t the outside but the inside of the taxi (usually owned by a freelance driver and usually one of the classic old VW Beetles) that was covered with stickers with all sorts of jokes and witticisms on them, usually slightly indecent. Or very indecent, but my Spanish wasn’t that good. The stickers were probably there to distract you from the overall poor condition of the vehicle and the bad driving. Or maybe the taxi driver just liked to look at them while waiting for a fare.
Bumper stickers tend to come in two main types: those that make a political statement and indicate the good cause supported or the opinion held by the driver/owner of the car. This includes stickers that promote or advertise products (not including company logos). The other type includes witticisms and tends display a sense of humour. The political/good cause type of sticker can express nearly opinion under the sun and range from the discreet (small fish signs indicating that the driver is a Christian) through to large and eye-catching.
The ones that display a sense of humour are this writer’s favourites. While you won’t find any adorning my Honda Accord (the other half can’t stand bumper stickers), the following are a collection of my favourites:
• When I grow up, I want to be a BMW. (Seen on a very small hatchback).
• I used to be a Range Rover, but I shrank in the wash. (Ditto).
• Help! Dad just farted and we’re trapped!
• Don’t follow me – I’m lost, too.
What are favourite stickers spotted or put on the cars of readers? Send us through the good ‘uns for us all to enjoy (preferably clean – this is supposed to be a family-friendly site!).
Level 2, 9 Help Street