Drving today is not a very exciting occupation. When I first had a car (and bikes) there was no speedlimit, no crash helmet, passing your test was a simple thing, no annual roadworthy tests, (very often no brakes), no breathalysers (just walk in a straight line). Cars were dangerous, smelly, polluting and slow – the slow bit made them sort of safer, but driving was interesting, no motorways, road tolls or speed cameras.
Because old cars had no safety checks, things often fell off, wings, doors, wheels, I even had a steering wheel come off in heavy traffic once. So today driving is faster (which makes it just as dangerous) and we have invented road rage. But driving is overall boring.
One small highlight in my driving life is seeing the distance indicator (I think it is called an odeometer) change to an interesting number – OK perhaps my life is getting a bit boring – so this week in our Renault Clio was a big occasion for me, her is the video.
breathalysers, French life, fruk, line cars, living in france, old cars, Personal, renault clio, speedlimit
Hi Tony
Thank you so much for showing your video of that momentous event in your driving life – it’s nice to know that I’m not alone in getting pleasure from such daft things…
You’re right about things coming apart on old cars. Many years ago, driving my 1933 Riley in the morning rush hour on my way to work in the West End; approaching Chelsea bridge, I pulled out to pass a cyclist and when I moved the steering wheel to pull back in, I realised it was no longer connected to the road wheels. A ball-joint had come adrift. I pushed it out of the way of traffic and abandoned it, might have left a note on the windscreen. In the evening I put a square lashing round the offending part to keep it together (not for nothing did I study knots in the boy scouts) and drove it home. In those days it was possible to leave a vehicle untended for a working day with no problems – try to do something similar today and it would probably be melted down and made into saucepans by evening.