August 1, 2016
In addition to gardening, my mother was most passionate about driving. Or should we say racing? She liked to compare herself to “Caracciola in the Norther Curve” – an allusion to one of the most famous German racers at the most dangerous spot of the Avus, the Berlin city ring where races were sometimes held.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Caracciola
During my childhood she drove a white and black Mercedes Convertible, with red leather seats and teak wood armatures. The whole car reeked of smoke, she was a chain smoker. In fact this might be one of the few existing photos of her without Gauloise in hand. (And note the bandaid falling off my knee – not a day in Heuerland without scrapes and bruises from exploring.)
I am convinced that the number of her guardian angels was only slightly lower than that of her speeding tickets. Despite her attachment to this boat of a car, called lovingly, to my eternal embarrassment, Jeannette, she promptly exchanged it for a small ecologically more acceptable car the minute she realized what gas guzzling did to the planet – in the late 70s.
So this week I am going to look at some issues associated with driving, or just at the beauty of some cars, without trembling in a seatbelt-less passenger seat while doing 180 km/hr on the Autobahn.
Austin, TX.
Steve Tilden
When I was 18 I loved racing as well, and for your mother to love driving at speed, how fortunate you were. I talked my parents into buying a 1956 Austin Healy, wonderful little car, and drove it in low-speed races, one car at a time, never get out of 2nd gear.
One of my memories, a fond one, was when Mercedes quit racing the road circuits. They entered three cars in races one year, and came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in all of them. They invented an engine that had cams to open the valves, and unlike everyone else cams to close the valves as well. Everyone else used the standard springs to close the valves. Mercedes could get 11,000 rpm against competitors 8,000, so winning was easy. The next year they said Ach, too easy. We quit.
One more story, Jim Hall built three cars (around 1957), the Chaparral Racing Team, and beat everyone 1, 2, 3. Why? He used beefed-up automatic transmissions versus standard stick-shift with clutch. Were his cars any faster? Nope. But since he had a foot free from operating the clutch, he added air brakes, large flaps in back that raised hydraulically when a pedal was pushed. So the Chaparral cars could go much deeper into each corner before braking, leaving everyone else behind. Only for one year, though. The racing association outlawed air brakes, which to me must have been a huge feather in Jim Hall’s cap, and a statement by the racing association of how incompetent they were.
Martha Ullman West
What a lovely post. And may I say that the eager, alert expression on your face hasn’t changed one whit!
Lee
The Mercedes bug is an easy one to catch… and its had a hold on me since before I started driving. I’ve owned several of them and loved three… my ’57 220s, ’67 250s, and ’78 450slc. I still have the 450, but haven’t driven it much this summer because the air conditioning blower needs to be replaced.
friderikeheuer@gmail.com
220S coupe it was
Lee
No, the ’57 220s was a four door sedan, but I also had a “59 220SE Coupe. Both were wonderful cars to drive with very comfortable seats and beautiful wood dash and window trims. I sold the Coupe to a German collector… he drove the car from the Gorge to L.A. and shipped to his home in Hamburg.
Sidonie Caron
Friderike, you will get everyone’s historic personal memories of cars with this.
When we were first married Gordon and I had a 1933 MG J2 , but had to get rid of it when we had our first child, no room for what in England was called a carry cot. Anyhow, I always felt as though a lorry could barrel straight over us.
BTW, you were completely recognizable as a child.