F5 Dave
14th January 2011, 11:28
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Who remember these things?
Like mini American Jeep styled carts with simple square U shaped pedals that went back & forth driving a crank to a rear wheel.
Mine was a pass me down & repainted (again) by brush some matt drab olive. My neighbour had a flashy new one in a brighter green with JEEP or some-such written on it. But I wasn’t jealous, even at 8 I knew it looked contrived & mine had the battle worn patina of an authentic ex army. . .erm. . . pedal car.
The coolest one we ever saw was a completely stripped of bodywork chassis, it was much lighter & very Mad Max, not that we would know who he was for ten years or so.
Living on a hill, & a very steep one at that, we quickly caught on that the little running board behind the mudguard was the place to put your feet as soon as it all got going.
The incline from my house started fairly easily & then dropped to a steep section, around the blind left (this was all done on the footpath mind) & careering down the main straight section, squeeze between the tight bank to lamppost chicane & flatten out a touch & drive into the long grass section at the end.
Clearly there were no brakes, I don’t think they expected NZ hills, esp not the Karori ones.
You would of course be racing whatever the neighbourhood kids had on the day & it was a surprise we never bowled anyone around that corner. One day some joker mowed the long grass & that was a bit of a surprise as we made it to the fence.:eek:
Another day by myself I questioned, mid run by myself, what would happen if I didn’t drive into the long grass & continued down the street to the next road 20M further & down that footpath. Well as I approached I calculated that maybe this wasn’t the best idea as it was a 90deg corner.
I swung hard & made it round, but the car tipped on its side & slid to a stop. Oddly I think it fell on the inside side, not sure how that worked. I emerged unscathed & was pretty chuffed, but gutted no one saw it.
I had heard they stopped making them as kids used to keep their feet on the pedals & do bad things to them when they went down a hill. Oww yuck.
Like mini American Jeep styled carts with simple square U shaped pedals that went back & forth driving a crank to a rear wheel.
Mine was a pass me down & repainted (again) by brush some matt drab olive. My neighbour had a flashy new one in a brighter green with JEEP or some-such written on it. But I wasn’t jealous, even at 8 I knew it looked contrived & mine had the battle worn patina of an authentic ex army. . .erm. . . pedal car.
The coolest one we ever saw was a completely stripped of bodywork chassis, it was much lighter & very Mad Max, not that we would know who he was for ten years or so.
Living on a hill, & a very steep one at that, we quickly caught on that the little running board behind the mudguard was the place to put your feet as soon as it all got going.
The incline from my house started fairly easily & then dropped to a steep section, around the blind left (this was all done on the footpath mind) & careering down the main straight section, squeeze between the tight bank to lamppost chicane & flatten out a touch & drive into the long grass section at the end.
Clearly there were no brakes, I don’t think they expected NZ hills, esp not the Karori ones.
You would of course be racing whatever the neighbourhood kids had on the day & it was a surprise we never bowled anyone around that corner. One day some joker mowed the long grass & that was a bit of a surprise as we made it to the fence.:eek:
Another day by myself I questioned, mid run by myself, what would happen if I didn’t drive into the long grass & continued down the street to the next road 20M further & down that footpath. Well as I approached I calculated that maybe this wasn’t the best idea as it was a 90deg corner.
I swung hard & made it round, but the car tipped on its side & slid to a stop. Oddly I think it fell on the inside side, not sure how that worked. I emerged unscathed & was pretty chuffed, but gutted no one saw it.
I had heard they stopped making them as kids used to keep their feet on the pedals & do bad things to them when they went down a hill. Oww yuck.