Re: [Leica] R8 cars

[Robert Clark <rclark@desupernet.net>]

Gentlemen:
Although I am new to the group and this is my first post, I couldn't resist
telling you that I drive a 76 Mercedes 240D about 70 miles daily to work and
back.  I've experienced dead alternators, broken belts, broken airlines in the
vacuum pump, malfunctioning fuel gauges, leaky windscreens, an automatic
transmission to refused to shift into 4th gear when the temperature was less
than 40 degrees F, the AC compressor losing gas at a stop light, and worst of
all, running out of diesel fuel in a five lane commercial district.....got out
of the car, hand primed the pump because I knew there would still be some fuel
left, got it started, drove two miles and repeated the process until I found a
diesel pump....and I will love the car forever!  Now that I have the problems
worked out, it's reliable as ever....

By the way, just bought an M6 this weekend with a 50mm 1.4....my first venture
into the world of Leica!

Robert Clark
Lancaster, PA

Jim Shulman wrote:

> Easily the BEST story of the week from the Leica Users Group.  I've had many
> experiences in old cars, including unjamming the tranny of my '39 Roadmaster
> in an intersection, loosing a wheel of same vehicle at 50 mph, and various
> misadvertures in Ingrid, my '64 Volvo 122S wagon, but your electrified
> version of Victoria's Secret wins all hands down!
>
> Jim Shulman
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <TTAbrahams@aol.com>
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 8:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [Leica] R8 cars
>
> > Dale, I have nothing against MGA's, except the fule-pump! I used to carry
> a
> > hammer that was used to bang on the fuel pump cover when it stopped. It
> > invariably did this at busy intersections or at trafficlights. It would
> > happily idle until the light turned green and then die!
> >  As for cold weather trips in MGA's! A friend of mine and I bought one in
> > Stockholm and we were driving it back to southern Sweden. It was January
> and
> > although cold, no snow. We outfitted ourselves with a couple of leather
> > flight suits that we found at a surplus sale. They were very fancy with
> built
> > in electrical wires for heating the pilot (probably made for old
> biplanes).
> > The car had no top and no windshield (we were converting it to a track
> racer
> > and the price was low). We picked up the car and drove off, after a while
> we
> > got cold, plugged in the suits in the cigarette lighter outlet and found
> out
> > that the suits were 6 volt and the car put out 12 volt. It was an
> interesting
> > trip, every 15 minutes we would turn on the suits, after 5-6 minutes smoke
> > would erupt from armpits and crotch, pull the plug out, cool down, start
> > freezing, plug in the suit again. This was repeated for approximately 7
> hours
> > for the trip. We both agreed that we knew what a slice of toast felt like
> > after that trip! To top it off, it started snowing in the last 2 hours and
> we
> > were pulled over by the police. 2 young guys in an open sports car, no
> > windshield and smoke coming out of their clothing, in the middle of the
> > night, during a snowstorm, wonder what made them suspicious?
> > Tom A
> >