16 May 09 16:36, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> RN> Maybe so, but you do realize that the 18-wheeler has air brakes
 RW>> and RN> the VW does not.  (-:

 RW>> Consider the physics involved. A moving vehicle has kinetic energy
 RW>> equal to half the mass times the velocity squared. If the 18 wheeler
 RW>> and VW are moving at the same speed, their kinetic energies are thus
 RW>> proportional to their masses.

 RN> 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,
 RW>> room to spare with the 204 feet it'd take the VW to stop. And that's
 RW>> taking into account the lubricity of the roadway due to the fallout
 RW>> from the fog.

 RN> Still, I would not want to be in the VW.

If I had a quick-release tow chain, I'd do it differently. :o)

 RW>> My dad had emphsyma and couldn't breath in the air of San Diego,
 RW>> which is pretty clean by comparison to L.A.. Not to mention that
 RW>> asthma is on the increase there.

 RN> I've seen pictures of L.A.  You can't see the buildings because of
 RN> the smog.

Even on a good day, you can't see the mountains to the east of L.A..but
you can see them east of San Diego. I believe they're not as tall as those
east of L.A. too.

 RW>> One trip I made was in a VW, in 3rd gear going up. I don't recall if
 RW>> the VW's 4th gear was 1:1 or an overdrive, but it sure didn't have
 RW>> the power

 RN> I bought a used '61 VW and they are roomy, sturdy cars.  I think the
 RN> 4th gear is an overdrive gear.  That car was 10 years old when I
 RN> bought it and it was great on gas.  The only part I had to replace on
 RN> it was the fuel pump, which was a more simple job than I thought it
 RN> was going to be.

I never owned one that ran. I bought a 57 and had it for about a week,
then got rid of it.

 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
 RW>> a problem, as did my 1960 El Camino hauling my stuff when I moved to
 RW>> San Jose for a few months. It also had the power to tow the 57 up
 RW>> that mountain with the same load on the back when I moved back to
 RW>> San Diego.

 RN> Yeah, but you're talking about a 4-cylinder engine built for enonomy
 RN> and very little horsepower.

I'm also talking about cars that weigh a lot more than the VW...we need to
talk HP:Weight...

 RN> If you had a Monza Spyder, you probably wouldn't have had that
 RN> problem.

Depends on the Spyder. Some of them had 4.3L V8s and some had 5.0L V8s,
and some of them had the Buick 3.8L V6...I used to own a 76 Oldsmobile
Starfire with the Buick V6...that had a lot of energy. I never cared for
the Monza...

 RN> I still wish I had my '57 Bel Air. The only thing that was worrysome
 RN> was its tendency to fishtail on curves at high speed, which could be
 RN> corrected.

They had the same suspension as my 56, which doesn't have a tendency to do
that. It could be that the 283 engine was spinning those tiny 14" tires
when it lifted the weight off the inside wheel. My 56 has 15" wheels and
modern day radial tires near as I can get to the factory size. 225/75-15

 RW>> The latter was a long and tiresome trip, which I thought I could
 RW>> make non-stop, as I did every other time I made that trip. But with
 RW>> the loading and towing, I was all tuckered out by the time I hit
 RW>> Oceanside and pulled into a 'Scenic View' area and took a nap before
 RW>> proceeding.

The above was only a 525 mile trip one way, about 9 to 10 hours with one
stop for gas.

 RN> We thought the same thing back in '65 when my wife and I and our two
 RN> boys took a trip to Coral Gables to visit my sister.  I think the
 RN> distance from Covington, where we lived at the time, to CG was 918
 RN> miles.  We took turns driving and sleeping and occasionally stopped
 RN> to eat.  I forget how long it took to get there, but we were all glad
 RN> to be back home even though I had a good time while there.  That was
 RN> when I had my '65 Chevelle Station Wagon.

It's always good to be home after a long trip like that.

 RN> The "Smokies" in FL aren't very hospitable to tourists or visitors.

That would remind me of Missouri and Illinois smokies during the 55mph
speed limit...not one mile over.

                R\%/itt


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