RW> Still am... :o)
 
(-:
 
RW>RN> Maybe so, but you do realize that the 18-wheeler has air brakes and
RW>RN> the VW does not.  (-:
 
RW> Consider the physics involved. A moving vehicle has kinetic energy equal
RW> to half the mass times the velocity squared. If the 18 wheeler and VW are
RW> moving at the same speed, their kinetic energies are thus proportional to
RW> their masses.
 
That seems like an excellent answer, on the face of it.
 
RW> I figure the 18 wheeler would take about 273 feet to stop at 70mph, room
RW> to spare with the 204 feet it'd take the VW to stop. And that's taking
RW> into account the lubricity of the roadway due to the fallout from the
RW> fog.
 
Still, I would not want to be in the VW.
 
RW> My dad had emphsyma and couldn't breath in the air of San Diego, which is
RW> pretty clean by comparison to L.A.. Not to mention that asthma is on the
RW> increase there.
 
I've seen pictures of L.A.  You can't see the buildings because of the smog.
 
RW> One trip I made was in a VW, in 3rd gear going up. I don't recall if the
RW> VW's 4th gear was 1:1 or an overdrive, but it sure didn't have the power
 
I bought a used '61 VW and they are roomy, sturdy cars.  I think the 4th
gear is an overdrive gear.  That car was 10 years old when I bought it and
it was great on gas.  The only part I had to replace on it was the fuel
pump, which was a more simple job than I thought it was going to be.
 
RW> to pull that mountain. A 35hp VW from the sixties. I had a 57 Chevy
RW> convertible with a 283 and a 4spd at the time and it made it without a
RW> problem, as did my 1960 El Camino hauling my stuff when I moved to San
RW> Jose for a few months. It also had the power to tow the 57 up that
RW> mountain with the same load on the back when I moved back to San Diego.
 
Yeah, but you're talking about a 4-cylinder engine built for enonomy and
very little horsepower.  If you had a Monza Spyder, you probably wouldn't
have had that problem.  I still wish I had my '57 Bel Air.  The only thing
that was worrysome was its tendency to fishtail on curves at high speed,
which could be corrected.
 
RW> The latter was a long and tiresome trip, which I thought I could make
RW> non-stop, as I did every other time I made that trip. But with the
RW> loading and towing, I was all tuckered out by the time I hit Oceanside
RW> and pulled into a 'Scenic View' area and took a nap before proceeding.
 
We thought the same thing back in '65 when my wife and I and our two boys
took a trip to Coral Gables to visit my sister.  I think the distance from
Covington, where we lived at the time, to CG was 918 miles.  We took turns
driving and sleeping and occasionally stopped to eat.  I forget how long it
took to get there, but we were all glad to be back home even though I had a
good time while there.  That was when I had my '65 Chevelle Station Wagon.
 
The "Smokies" in FL aren't very hospitable to tourists or visitors.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

... Knowledge without common sense is folly.
--- D'Bridge 3.27